Welcome to the Clinician Researcher podcast, where academic clinicians learn the skills
to build their own research program, whether or not they have a mentor.
As clinicians, we spend a decade or more as trainees learning to take care of patients.
When we finally start our careers, we want to build research programs, but then we find
that our years of clinical training did not adequately prepare us to lead our research
program.
Through no fault of our own, we struggle to find mentors, and when we can't, we quit.
However, clinicians hold the keys to the greatest research breakthroughs.
For this reason, the Clinician Researcher podcast exists to give academic clinicians
the tools to build their own research program, whether or not they have a mentor.
Now introducing your host, Toyosi Onwuemene.
Welcome to the Clinician Researcher podcast.
My name is Toyosi Onwuemene, and it is such a pleasure to be here.
I am your host, and I am excited to be talking with you today about the very first episode
of the year.
Yes, it is 2024, and this is our first episode.
This is season two of the Clinician Researcher podcast.
Like many of you, I hope.
I took the end of the year to rest and reflect.
I didn't post any episodes, and so this is the first episode of the year.
In leading up to this episode, I've really been thinking about what is the Clinician
Researcher podcast going to look like going into 2024, and I have some changes that are
coming.
One of those is that our episodes are really going to twice a week.
Last season, I broadcasted four days a week individually, and then I typically had a guest
on Fridays.
We're going to keep the guest on Fridays, and I'm going to go to broadcasting just once
a week on my own.
Two episodes a week, once on Mondays, once on Fridays.
That's why this episode is coming to you on Friday, January 5th, and that's the schedule
that I'm going to keep this year.
Why am I doing that?
Well, I think it was very helpful to get all those episodes out initially, and it really
helped me keep thinking about what do my people need, the people I support as they're making
the transition from clinician to researcher, what do they need?
I think in the whole process of producing episodes as many times as I was, it really
helped me gain clarity about who I help and how I can help them.
The clarity that I've gained has really come to me, I think, over the last few days of
the first of the year.
So, you know how you start the new year with this amazing, exciting energy, and everything
is awesome, and you have all these goals, and you're going to meet all of them?
I did start the year with that kind of energy.
And what became clear quickly is that it may be the beginning of the new year, but the
problems that were in last year did not just fizzle away, they are still here.
And so, I had an opportunity to talk with a faculty member today who was at the point
of quitting, at the point of quitting, feeling like, I can't do this anymore, this is too
hard, this doesn't make sense, why am I still here?
And so, I had the opportunity, and it was a beautiful opportunity, as it always is,
to coach her through that experience, and to really help her reframe and think about
the agency that she has, the power that she has, to transform her experience, and to get
out of it what she wants, not what other people say that she wants.
And so, because of that perspective, I think it helps me think clearly about how this year
moves forward in the Clinician Researcher podcast, and I wanted to share with you, I
want to share five things with you.
I think the first thing that really comes to my mind is that, for me, this year is about
helping people be true to who they are.
And now, I don't presume to be in charge of anybody else.
I don't tell people what to do, I don't teach people what to do, I mean, I try.
But for the most part, I think people are self-directed, goal-oriented, and certainly
clinicians are self-directed, goal-oriented.
They know what to do, they don't need anybody telling them what to do.
And so, I want to honor that and respect that, especially as I continue to work with coaching
clients.
And by the way, if you're looking for a coach, I do have three one-on-one coaching slots
left for the year.
They'll be gone quickly, but I want to share with you in case you want to reach out and
schedule a coaching consult call.
I will put some information in the notes about that.
But definitely would love to talk with you and see if this could be a fit for you if
you're looking for one-on-one coaching.
But what I recognize is that people will do what people want to do.
And what people are looking for is not someone to tell them what to do, but it's for someone
who gives them the space to become all that they're meant to be.
And so, in moving forward in the Clinician Researcher podcast this year, I do want to
allow people to be who they are because that is so beautiful.
The challenge that we experience, I think, in academic medicine is that people are trying
so hard to be something that they're not, so hard to achieve goals that are not their
own goals, trying so hard to reach milestones that are not the milestones they want to reach.
And frankly, it's exhausting, it's overwhelming, and it's just, you know, it's, you know,
at the end of the day people are making their own choices.
I don't judge those choices.
But I think what's most beautiful is when people stop that, when they finally get to
the end of the road and they're like, I don't want to live like that anymore.
I want to be me.
And that is a beautiful space.
And as a coach and seeing people come to that space of no more of this thing, I want me,
I want to be the best that I can be, I want to experience the fully actualized version
of me.
That's the beautiful thing.
And so this year, the season on the podcast for me is about giving people space, is about
giving people the things that they need rather than the things that I think that they need.
So what does that mean?
That means that when my coaching clients have challenges, those are the challenges I'm going
to be talking about here on the podcast, because this podcast really is for my clients.
It's for my clinicians who are trying the really taking on the really near impossible
task of making that transition from clinician to researcher without really the support or
the resources to do it, getting creative about making that transformation.
So that's the first thing.
The second thing, the second direction I think that we're going on in this podcast this year
is about being authentic.
Now I don't say that to say that, hey, I've not been authentic, now I'm going to be authentic.
But I think it's just recognizing that it's important for me to share that sometimes I
wonder if I should be in academia.
Sometimes there are some challenges and today was one of such challenging days, today being
not the Friday in which you're listening to the podcast episode, but the Thursday in which
I'm recording it.
It was one of those days where I thought, wait a minute, why am I still here?
And I literally would have appreciated having someone coach me through my day and to help
me get to the point of recognizing that I'm here because I choose to be, I'm here because
I want to be, I'm here because I enjoy the fruit of the labor that I invest in this career
as an academic.
And I eventually was able to coach myself to that point.
It would have been nice to have someone help me do that.
But yeah, I want to be authentic about the struggles and the challenges that I experience
in my academic journey as well.
It's not all candles and roses.
And that goes without saying, you don't need me to say that academic medicine is hard,
but being able to say, hey, it was a hard day for me too.
And so I think I'm going to do more of that this year.
And so that's where the authenticity piece comes in.
The other thing that I'm going to do is I'm going to definitely bring on more guests that
have a different perspective from the clinician, the academic clinician.
I think it's important.
I do certainly want to bring on a lot more clinicians.
And at some point in the year, I'll bring on some of my coaching clients so that they
can share some of the wins that they've had and some of the experiences they've had with
coaching.
I'm looking forward to that.
But what I'm also doing is bringing on people like the sleep expert to help us recognize
why rest is critical.
Why it's not just a nice thing to have.
It is an absolutely important critical part of our experience as people first, but certainly
as academic clinicians as well.
So I'm excited for her podcast episode, which will be airing next Friday, and certainly
many, many, many more episodes coming to you this year that will really help you and will
help you think outside the box of just being a clinician only and doing all the things
and checking all the boxes that help us recognize that, hey, we are people first and our experience
really does matter.
The fourth thing is really thinking about how can I serve you best?
How can I serve you well?
And that's really taking questions that you're sending my way or you're sharing with me on
the podcast website, clinicianresearcherpodcast.com, sharing with me voicemails or whatever other
ways that you are sharing information with me.
Really taking that and making that, really incorporating that into the episodes.
Because what I really want this podcast to do is to serve you.
And if you as a listener have questions that you want me to answer, I really do want to
bring them front and center and answer them on the podcast.
And then the fifth thing that I want to share that I definitely want to do with the episodes
this year is to have more video.
And so on the podcast website, we have the opportunity to have video with the podcast
episodes.
And so I'm definitely going to be doing a lot of these episodes, actually as many as
I can.
And if it works out great and if it doesn't work out, that's great too.
But so for those of you who are listening, it's still primarily a podcast.
It really still is about the listening experience.
But definitely I will pair it with video because for some people, video resonates with them.
People are just different in the way they want to experience information.
And so yes, look out for more video from me this year.
So that's the end of today's podcast episode, really.
I wanted to just share with you that hey, we are back.
Season two is live.
And it's coming to you differently, just twice a week this time.
And it's going to be okay.
It's going to be great.
And definitely if you're listening to your questions, your guests you want to see, let
me know.
I'd be happy to bring those to you.
All right.
It's been a pleasure talking with you today.
I want you to share this podcast episode with just one other person who needs to hear it.
And I definitely look forward to talking with you again the next time.
Thank you for listening.
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Clinician Researcher Podcast, where academic
clinicians learn the skills to build their own research program, whether or not they
have a mentor.
If you found the information in this episode to be helpful, don't keep it all to yourself.
Someone else needs to hear it.
So take a minute right now and share it.
As you share this episode, you become part of our mission to help launch a new generation
of clinician researchers who make transformative discoveries that change the way we do healthcare.