Energized at Work: Episode 21 with Prenatal Genetic Counselor and Researcher Lauren Westerfield

Success in Medicine

My interview with prenatal genetic counselor and researcher Lauren Westerfield is a fantastic lesson in how to approach challenging career decisions.

The framework and approach to impending burnout that she describes in this episode is very thoughtful and analytical--and has proven effective.

Ms. Westerfield works in both clinical practice and research as the research study coordinator for an NIH-funded multicenter study. She is based at Texas Children's Hospital and the Baylor College of Medicine.

One of the things that struck me about her conversation, and that she highlighted, is that many of the discussions about burnout are on "how do you move onto the next thing". By contrast, her approach provides an option for staying in a position in a more sustainable way, because that’s also an option for resolution of burnout. She wanted to stay in a great institution, doing work that she loves.

• She describes how she was approaching burnout at a specific point in her career, during which there were increased clinical demands and ongoing leadership and teaching responsibilities.
• One thing that struck me about our conversation is that she had a high degree of self-awareness to recognize that despite her strong coping skills, she was approaching burnout and needed to make a change.
• She developed a framework for determining the next steps in her career, and developed a three phase process. Phase 1 was survival, identifying what was contributing to her stress level and determining how to modify those.
• She next approached her managers. As a high performer, she had proven her worth to the organization, and her managers were committed to working with her to help retain her in the organization. Moving forward, they were able to re-allocate some of her leadership tasks and rebalance her clinical time with her research time.
• Throughout this process, she was sharing this with the junior members of her team, and continues to share and speak very honestly and transparently about her experiences.

For those who would love to stay in a career or a position that they love, this is an inspiring episode about how making deliberate changes and having challenging conversations can lead to great outcomes.