JOHN: Hey Katie!
KATIE: Hey John, welcome back!
JOHN: Thank you, I haven't seen you for a while.
KATIE: I know, where have you been?
JOHN: Well, that's one of the things I want to sit and talk to you about
believe it or not, I went out and did a training
called peer support.
And I've heard that in the time I've been gone
over the past week or so there's been a few difficult cases here.
KATIE: You could say that.
JOHN: I also saw you've been on a stretch of shifts, too.
KATIE: You know how
how crazy it is, there's, what else are you going to do?
You know? People need care. You're gonna show up.
JOHN: One 12-hour shift after another.
It's you work, you go home, you eat, you sleep, you come back - right?
KATIE: Yeah, rinse, repeat.
JOHN: Yeah.
[laughter]
That's a great way to put it, especially on such a rainy day like this!
So, one of the things - I'm very excited -
one of the things I just learned about this peer support
is something we are bringing here to this organization
because that's where I heard about it initially
and what it is, is team members who do the same work
reaching out to each other to support one another
and the fact that all of these cases, these bad cases have happened
in succession kind of demonstrates the need for this, right?
KATIE: I've actually, I've heard a little bit about this with
former colleagues at other institutions and
I don't know - I think I could go either way on it
I feel like some of it we do naturally with
debriefs after difficult cases and
honest to god, John, sometimes the last thing
on Earth I want to do is talk about this again.
Like, I just need to -
we have a whole other - like, right back at ya -
a whole other 12 right around the corner so,
sometimes you have to move on.
JOHN: Exactly, everyone copes in a different way.
And as you mentioned, the team debriefs are about the team, right?
And we don't really have a formalized way, at least here,
to do that for the individual
and this is something I've learned has been going on for 10 or 15 years
at other places, and what it is
the availability of someone who does the work you do
to sit down and chat with you and
some people find it helpful, some people don't
but if you develop a culture in an organization
where people are comfortable doing this -
I'm a lot older than you and back
you know, when I did my training, right?
You don't talk, you just deal with it,
put it inside, and go with it, right?
And you just don't ever, you know, do anything about it.
KATIE: I feel like that's still kind of the case, to be honest,
and I guess I don't understand what's different about a peer supporter
than me talking to one of my
you know, confidant colleagues
I mean, I know your medical training isn't in this
but is this something for which you get trained or -
JOHN: Yeah, that's what I was just doing.
I was taking a course and I learned how to train others, too,
and the beautiful thing about it is exactly what you just said
it's not something where it's a chain of command
type of thing where you have to meet with your leader and then
you know, the leader meets with someone else
and you do all this kind of stuff.
It's kind of, it's putting a little structure around
what we've all done naturally over time
so it's just a way to really kind of
have a way that we all can have an outlet
if we need it - it's not something that everyone needs
you know, all the time, but
it's just somebody there to be there and to listen.
KATIE: And like, what do we do, do you
come with an agenda? Does this, like -
JOHN: No, we just sit down and really,
from the peer supporter side of things, it's really about listening,
listening to the other person, finding out what's going on with them
and hearing what they do, you know, to deal with their stress
or to deal with their anxiety or how things are impacting them
because you know, one of the things, again
that we never really learned how to do is to process this kind of stuff
and one of the things that I've learned is
when you look at all of the people training now to be a doctor or a nurse
they’re all learning how to do a better work-life balance
than we learned how to do and they've all learned -
KATIE: Ha, what balance?
JOHN: Exactly! They've all learned how to communicate, you know
about things that are going on in a different and probably
healthier way than we ever learned so
this is kind of catch-up.
KATIE: Yeah,
JOHN: We're learning some of the stuff that, you know
we're trying to teach others
KATIE: Again, I've definitely heard about this
it's, um - and honestly, having this
conversation come from you means something
and, I don't know,
I'm going to take a deeper dive on it.
JOHN: Well, that's great and I mean, you know my reputation
I'm one of these guys, right,
you know, everything just brushes off his back
nothing bothers him, right, he always goes along
but this is something that I've found really helps me
with my stress and anxiety is to sit and chat with others
and I can definitely direct you because there's a bunch of resources
that the peer support team, that's you know
that's here has put together
for folks to look at and see what works for them or what might work for them
but anyway, just to see what all the offerings are.
KATIE: I mean I guess I'd be interested because even if not for me,
like, for my team.
I guess I'd give it
I'm willing to, you know, be the test case with you because
it's been really hard.
JOHN: Yeah, I mean COVID has been tough and then just
the everyday stuff is tough, right? I mean, KATIE: It's just nonstop.
JOHN: We gotta support each other because we've all gone through it
you know, we want to be able to be there for ourselves,
for each other, and for our patients.
KATIE: Yeah.
JOHN: Well, sorry to have this kind of - KATIE: Oh, no.
JOHN: Pseudo-deep conversation with you but,
KATIE: Well it was good to see you!
JOHN: Nice to see you, too.
KATIE: No, you're - I mean, you're spot on.
It's just, it's a lot to think about.
JOHN: Well, I hope you have some time off coming up
and hopefully you'll have some sunshine.
KATIE: Ha! Thank you.
JOHN: Alright, I'll see you later.
KATIE: Alright, bye.