Dr Danielle Jones, also known as Mama Doctor Jones, is an American (OB/GYN) and doctor influencer. Across YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, she has more than 2 million followers.

In this amusing and informative episode of the Better Together podcast, Dr Sam Hazledine finds out how Jones has built such a large and loyal following and uncovers the steps for other doctors looking to create a platform.

Dr Danielle Jones’  journey into medicine went a little differently from that of her peers. She originally planned to go into psychology until she realised that it wasn’t for her. 

“At the same time as I had this realisation, my dad was experiencing some complications and needed a lung transplant.”  

When her dad was very sick, Jones sat at his bedside, where she experienced a deeper calling. 

“I just looked at the people and thought the difference between good healthcare and bad healthcare is how it’s delivered, and I thought...I could be a good healthcare deliverer.” 

She realised she could learn science but also wanted to be a genuinely good doctor. “I wanted to learn to provide good care to families going through things that are terrible or sometimes wonderful.” 

After this, Jones decided to apply to medical school, and that is how she ended up where she is today.

Moving to New Zealand:

“I hope Jacinda is going to be my best friend!”

Jones jokes to Dr Sam Hazledine about the New Zealand prime minister. 

Jones and her husband first visited New Zealand in 2011. After that, they fell in love with the country and decided to move there one day.  

“We returned with the kids and rented an RV to travel the South Island. The kids loved it! We really fell in love with the culture, the lifestyle, and the people, and the things to do outside, so we decided to try and make the move. “

Due to the pandemic, the prospect of getting into the country was low, and Jones faced many roadblocks on the way (including the whole family catching COVID-19!).

“The Invercargill job opened up, and I applied. The people at Southland Hospital were wonderful and seemed like great people to work with which is why I ended up accepting the job.”

Social media:‍

Dr Danielle Jones got into social media in 2009. " It was very odd back then as a medical student to be blogging your way through med school or to be on Twitter.” 

She felt that back then, it wasn’t socially acceptable for doctors and that her peers found it unusual. 

At this time she didn’t have a goal for the account: “It was a creative outlet. I liked to write, so I just wrote about my experiences, and I quickly realised that Twitter was a really great place both for learning and for connecting.” 

Jones describes her social brand as “edutainment.” It is meant to be entertaining, and you leave after accidentally learning something. 

“I always wanted my presence online to be like if your best friend was a gynaecologist and you were at coffee talking about pap smears.”

Jones took a break from social media to have her twins and work, then in 2017, she started up again on Instagram under the Mama Doctor Jones brand. “My goal was really just to educate, and to advertise my practice - really quickly I noticed that there was a lot of growth happening that I hadn’t anticipated.”

When Jones realised she was on to something, she started making goals, and that’s when she started her YouTube channel. 

“I did have goals when I started YouTube, but I never thought it would be what it is today -  almost a million subscribers. It’s insane!”

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Tips for other doctors looking to grow a following:

Niche down: figure out who you’re talking to, and then what you will talk about comes pretty quickly. It doesn’t have to be one health topic; it can be an age. I speak to 20 - 30-year-olds. Try inventing an avatar for your niche and structure every post just for them.‍

Do it for the love: I have been so successful because I have a genuine interest in social media marketing! You have to enjoy it. Find something you love talking about, learn the platform, learn the algorithm, and learn the community!‍

Up-skill: I listen to podcasts about how to succeed on the platforms I use.  ‍

Keep showing up consistently: Sometimes people start, but they don’t keep showing up because it is a thankless job in the beginning. However, you need to keep going if you want to grow a following. ‍

Create valuable content: If you create valuable content for the person you are talking to, you will grow your platform.‍

Don’t try to be everywhere:  I wouldn’t start trying to be everywhere; it’s too much work. Start on one platform, and then you can branch out onto a new platform once you are comfortable there. ‍

Never fight in the comments: always take it to your platform if you want to debunk something. Sometimes, the comments are like a red rag at a bull, but they never end with you feeling like, “That was worth my time.”‍

Find your community: The OB/GYN community all support each other, and we are all friends; it’s not competitive. ‍

You can learn from fake medical influencers: I follow some of the accounts that share misinforming medical information because they are able to create content in a way that makes people want to push it out and share it. I learn from them. I also can use them to create content by debunking their myths. Often, these fake medical influencers are actually selling something: “Everything your doctor didn’t tell you!”

The benefits of social media: ‍

“Social media could never replace clinical medicine because I love being at the bedside, but I do feel that social media is much better for reaching way more people than you ever could on a clinical basis,” explained Jones.

“A single post reaches more people than I would ever reach in my clinical career, which is a huge opportunity and a big responsibility.”  

Jones is able to spend time on social media discussing topics like the COVID-19 vaccination and safety in pregnancy, which is valuable to people who aren’t getting enough information from their clinic visits and need a place to go where someone could actually sit down and explain the science. 

“The more doctors we get online, the more doctors we have speaking about evidence-based medicine, the better!”

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The downside of social media:

Jones explains how right now, there are a lot of hate-fuelled posts towards doctors, especially people talking about COVID-19 vaccinations, and you need a thick skin to deal with these. 

“People are saying the COVID-19 vaccine is going to take out the whole planet because it is meant for population control, but why would they want to take out their entire country? What good would that do? They won’t have people who are able to work. They won’t be able to do anything! This is capitalism -  they don’t want to kill you!” Jones laughs. 

Jones admits that sometimes she struggles with decompartmentalising “I am constantly checking messages. I used to try to respond to everyone, but now I do my best. I get 1-2 thousand messages a week, and that doesn’t even count comments.” 

Jones explains that her “edutainment” style is not the same as that of some other doctors on social media, and it sometimes negatively affects the kind of media opportunities she gets because people want the “serious doctor.”

“I am not the uppity doctor on CNN, but I feel like my reach on a person-to-person level is so much greater that I don’t care.”

Jones has one assistant who helps her with Facebook content, but she does 99% of everything else herself (to put this in perspective, Dr Hazledine points out that she is managing an audience half the size of New Zealand!). 

Dr Danielle Jones isn’t afraid to call out misinformation online, but she picks fights with ideas and not people. 

Although she commands an audience of over 2 million, her primary goal in life is to be a “good person and a good mum.”

Audiences across the world have taken to her because she talks to them like they’re “real people, which they are!” 

I get emails like, “I’ve never got a pap smear, and now I’ve gone because I understand why it is important.” 

The transgender community has been incredibly helpful to me in learning how to use more gender-neutral language, especially when talking about a field that has been so traditionally “gendered.” Jones gets messages saying:

“your platform is the only place which I feel like I can come and learn about gynaecological health as a trans man or as a non-binary person. Everywhere else just gives me such bad dysphoria.” 

“I think that it is really important that those people have equal access to education,” Jones explains. 

If Jones could go back to her 18-year-old self she would say: “learn Spanish. It will be extremely valuable for delivering labours in South Texas!” and also, “You don’t have to be perfect. You are smarter than you give yourself credit for; do what is right and follow your gut, and you’ll make it.” 

Listen to the podcast episode:

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Dr Amanda Thomson’s simple tips for better mental health

Dr Amanda Thomson knows what it is like to go without. She’s from an underprivileged background and had to work hard to become a doctor. It’s left her wanting to help people live their fullest lives, whatever their circumstances.

“My family was relatively underprivileged and I had to move out of the family home to complete my secondary education, which wasn’t particularly ideal,” she says.

Amanda splits her time between the Sunshine Coast region (Australia), where she works in youth mental health, and at an Aboriginal medical centre, where she works with the Butchulla people of the Fraser Coast.

“I am incredibly fortunate to work in two areas I am especially passionate about – youth mental health and indigenous medicine for our First Nations people. I feel very blessed to be able to provide quality care for these often underprivileged populations.”

As a doctor and mental health advocate, she focuses on youth mental health and caring for people in remote areas. She’s worked in youth detention and in remote areas like Mount Isa and Arnhem Land. Her roles are linked by her desire to help people overcome challenges and live their best lives.

“I enjoy engaging and encouraging people in all circumstances to dream big and help them realise that anybody can overcome adversity and challenges, and I enjoy helping them find ways in which to do so.

“For youth and adolescents in particular, life can often be so overwhelming even in the best of home life circumstances. Being able to be there and encourage and support young people to reach their full potential and live their fullest lives brings me an immense amount of joy and job satisfaction.”

It was working in a detention centre that drove Amanda to make a difference in mental health and Indigenous health. While working at the centre, she witnessed the high incarceration rates of Indigenous youth and became determined to make a positive change.

“It both saddened and angered me in equal parts and really was the driving force for me to proactively pursue a career in youth mental health and indigenous medicine.”

She hopes that by helping the young people she works with to improve their own health and wellbeing, she can lower the statistics.

“We discuss lifestyle factors which are so commonly overlooked. Things like establishing a daily routine, getting adequate restorative sleep, eating a wide variety of fresh foods to power the brain, finding some exercise ideas that are enjoyable for the patient, building connections/relationships with friends and family, and developing passions/hobbies.”

Ultimately, everyone needs to attend to their own health and wellbeing. It’s a fact not lost on Amanda, who recognises that poor mental health is an issue within the medical community too.

“Doctors, by nature, are generally very caring people. It is very easy to over-commit, particularly when working in under-resourced areas. I think one of the main things I have learnt throughout my years of working in mental health is to make a conscious effort to create time for self-care and to learn how to set boundaries at work in regard to workload so as to maintain my own mental fitness and to ensure every patient receives the time that is required to provide optimum care.”

As a doctor, solo mum, and mental health advocate, we asked Amanda for her simple tips on how to feel better and improve your own mental health and wellbeing.

Dr Amanda’s simple tips for better mental health

Priorities

I know this can be so very challenging with family commitments, children, long work hours, study, etc. However, it really is possible (if you prioritise it), for everybody to schedule some time for exercise, to eat nutritious foods, to connect with friends, or work on your passions.

Awareness

It is so very important to find time or create time, to pursue mental fitness for yourself.

A routine can help

I am a very busy working solo mum of two children who participate in extracurricular activities both before and after school, so I really do appreciate it is often very difficult for doctors to create some ‘protected’ time for themselves. Myself personally, I find having a routine helps enormously with creating some protected time for myself.

Exercise

I go for a walk or run right next to the kids’ school when I drop them off on the days that I don’t start work until 9 am, or I run around the oval while they do their sports training.  Sometimes, I’ll squeeze in an early morning HIIT class at the gym while the kids get ready for school.  Recently, with the COVID pandemic, I’ve downloaded various apps that allow me to do some short exercise sessions in my garage with no equipment needed. I can do this while the kids get ready for school or after I’ve put them to bed.

Eat well

Eat a variety of nutritious foods. The way in which I make this work is to cook extra every night when I’m cooking the evening meal, then pack the leftovers for my lunch. It’s such an easy way to eat a balanced meal during the day and there is no extra effort required.

Take time for things you enjoy

It’s so very important to create time to pursue your passions. I love relaxing with my guitar whenever I can, getting outdoors to do some photography and keeping fit with high intensity training and weights.

Dr Mark Seaman is in his final year of GP training, he is a mental health advocate, fitness enthusiast, and trustee for You Okay, Doc? A mental health charity for doctors.

In this article, Mark chats candidly to Medworld Institute about what inspired him to become a doctor and offers advice for other doctors looking to take care of their mental health and wellbeing. 

Tell me a bit about yourself and why you wanted to become a doctor.

I often wonder what exactly drew me to medicine as well.  I was not sure what I wanted to do as a career path and had many different ideas eventually coming down to choosing between training as a vet or a doctor. I loved science at school and learning how and why things work the way they do - especially how animals and the human body works. 

I also grew up working in pub kitchens from a young age. I enjoyed meeting new people and being part of a service industry, which I think has helped me with shift patterns and working in pressurised teams.

I did not go straight to medical school (medicine was not really even on my mind when applying for university) and I did a degree in Biomedicine in the north of England, which was a great experience, and I developed a lot as a person. During the studious part of my undergraduate degree, I realised I enjoyed learning about the pathology of disease more and more and that working in a lab was not for me.  I think this combination led me to know I wanted to do something that helped or provided a service whilst also keeping alive my love of learning. What made me commit to applying for medicine was a survival first aid course I did on which there were some paramedics and doctors who encouraged me to apply. I then spent a year working as a healthcare assistant and a chef at a local pub to save for medical school, which I was fortunate enough to get into.

What area of medicine are you currently working in? 

I am currently in my final year of GP training.  During medical school, I thought I would pursue surgery as I like practical problem-solving tasks and enjoyed theatre but during my foundation years, I realised I also enjoyed medicine a great deal, so I pursued a further two years of medical training in the Republic of Ireland and got my MRCPI. During this time, I started thinking about what speciality I wanted to spend my career in, I realised I could not pick one and enjoyed everything in parts, which led me to return to the UK to start GP training. 

I think that is one of the great things about medical training, there are always lots of choices and it's okay to be unsure and change your mind.

Have you ever experienced burnout, if yes, can you tell me a bit about it and how you got through it?

I have been asked this question a fair few times now and often considered what burnout means. It is defined as unmanageable stress rooted in the workplace, with feelings of exhaustion, dissatisfaction with or negative about your job, and being less efficient at it. Have I felt the exhaustion? Yes. Have I felt negative about my job? Yes. Have I been less productive during those times? If I am honest with myself, then probably yes. I have certainly had low points where I have felt all of those, particularly during the height of the pandemic on the medical rota but also at separate times on certain jobs throughout my career.

I feel burnout can be a spectrum, with signs at the beginning that if you can recognise you can take actions to help yourself  -the problem is often it's hard to notice it in ourselves and this is why having honest and supportive friends, family and colleagues can be so important. 

We all need to look out for each other and ask simply are you okay from time to time - checking in on yourself and asking the same question honestly can also be helpful. 

If you find the answer is "no I am not okay", ask yourself why and what it is, can you do something to change it? For me taking a break was important, I took leave and focused on myself and on returning to work. I made sure I did the simple things like taking breaks, checking in with friends, spending time on hobbies and going to the gym.

I see that you are a passionate advocate for mental health and wellbeing. Was there a specific incident that motivated you to get involved in this field?

There has been no one particular event that I can pinpoint and say is why it is so important to me, but rather multiple events throughout my career so far, including my time at medical school, that have highlighted the importance of mental health and wellbeing. The mental health and wellbeing of ourselves as doctors was something I can't recall being well addressed at medical school, but I think it would have helped a lot.

From a young age, I have been enthused about physical wellbeing and fitness, though it has only been in recent years that I have started to understand that mental fitness is just as important. At the foundation of our wellbeing, we have our health, which is equal parts mental and physical. 

To get the very best out of ourselves, I am a firm believer in developing an understanding of yourself which is very much a journey. 

Learning what gives you energy and what makes you as a person whole. It's different for everyone and starting to look inward and exploring what keeps you well and whole is something I recommend everyone try.  There lies an endless supply of resources on wellbeing out there, but learning what works for you and what you enjoy doing for your wellbeing will be unique to you -that is what I believe will make it sustainable and beneficial. 

What do you do to look after yourself and your own mental health and wellbeing? 

I am sort of continuing on from the last question here and starting off by saying what works for me won't necessarily work for you.  I think there are key pillars to mental health that include; sleep, being active, having a network (friends, colleagues, family), having a purpose (it doesn’t have to be your job it can be a hobby!), and nutrition. 

 By no way or means am I always doing well at all of those, but I really do notice the difference when I do. I am lucky, I enjoy going to the gym and running but that doesn't have to be the way that someone else stays fit and active. 

I think finding something that’s good for you and you enjoy is often the key to sustaining a good habit. 

I also love reading and try and make sure I read a book that is not related to the day job every day. Through the pandemic, I also started drawing again which is a great way for me to let my mind wander.  

I do check in on myself regularly, often when running in the countryside I let my thoughts drift and see if there's anything bothering me subconsciously and if so during the run I often manage to think it out and feel settled by the end.

Can you tell me a bit about You Okay Doc? What does the charity do? and why did you choose to get involved as a trustee? 

You Okay, Doc?  is a mental health charity for doctors that was set up by one of my best friends from medical school (Daniel Gearon) and co-founded by a psychotherapist (Chris Cherry). 

The impetus for starting the charity was a tragic physician suicide by the founder's cousin.  The charity was set up to try and fill a real gap and need for supporting doctors' mental health. 

It has really grown in the last two years with the provision of Huddles which are therapist-led small group sessions doctors can attend to discuss their wellbeing, podcasts, webinars, events and an ever-growing community within the charity to help normalise talking about mental health and wellbeing of doctors and provide help where we can. 

I got involved initially as a founding ambassador because I really believed in the purpose of the charity and what it can do to help doctors wellbeing.  I have been lucky enough to be a part of it and really enjoyed the process.  It's an amazing team and community to be a part of. I agreed to take the position of a trustee when it was offered as I was very involved anyway in the charity and wanted to help be part of its growth.

From your Instagram, I can see you spend a lot of time outdoors and focus on physical fitness. How do you prioritise to create such a positive work/life balance? 

Well, I certainly don't always get it right, especially not initially. 

I think it is important where you can to prioritise the things you enjoy and try and make the most of them. 

I make things work around the job and also remember that it is healthy to leave work/handover and take time for things outside your job. It can be very easy with exams, projects, audits, and portfolios to let them eat up your free time - which happened at the beginning and still does occasionally, though less so as I am better at setting boundaries within my personal time and work time for these things. I am more productive at work and better for it.

Do you have any advice for other doctors who want to prioritise their own health and wellbeing? 

Remember it is a job, it can be a great job with so many amazing experiences and opportunities, but it is still a job. 

Prioritising your wellness is not selfish and it certainly isn't always easy but it will help you have a happier career. If you are just starting to look at your own wellbeing it can sometimes be overwhelming, start small find things you enjoy and build on these. Small sustainable actions beat sudden unsustainable ones every time.

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For more, follow @dr_marks_journey on Instagram.

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My name is Mariam, and I am family doctor, clinical researcher, and most importantly a mother to rainbow twin boys. I have a special interest in caring for women and young families and I am passionate about evidence-based preventative medicine and providing holistic care for all my patients. If I am not working in the clinic, you will find me improving health literacy on Instagram @ask.the.dr

Have you ever experienced burnout, if yes, can you tell me a bit about it and how you got through it?

‍"A series of unfortunate events.

A comedy of errors.

A magnet for misfortune.

A burning angel.

A failing flight.

An Icarus prophecy.

Oh, how she wished the world would just swallow her whole."

‍I wrote this piece when I was a medical registrar and it summarised how I felt for a large portion of my hospital training. Each of us working doctors has faced this problem in some way. For many of my health colleagues it's a challenge that we are beginning to realise never really goes away. It's the risk of burn out. Physically, emotionally, we get worn out. We see things, get made to do things that can put us under an immense amount of pressure.

I write this as a strong female who likes to think of herself as assertive and resilient. But even with my strong and confident attitude I would stumble and fall. There were days I would come home to an empty house following a monstrous shift and I would just sit and cry. I was tired of the anxiety that lurked deep in my belly every living moment. The fear that I would never be good enough. The fear that I would miss something important or the fear that I would be judged by my colleagues. I had moments where I would question my existence.

Working in an environment rampant and rife with sexism, bullying, and unrealistic expectations, I was always questioning myself, denigrating my strengths, and perseverating over my inadequacies. When you would ask for help, you were deemed incompetent or acopic.

So instead, I allowed the system to dictate that we are to "suck it up" and that it's all part of the process of being the "better doctor". I was jaded and disappointed in a system that continued to let me down despite me giving it everything I could.

I made the decision to leave physicians training. I took some time out to locum and spent a year abroad. Travelling abroad really expanded my horizons and taught me so much about the world and more importantly about myself. It was only during that time I was able to understand how unwell and unhappy I was. I have since made some big decisions and I am quite happy with where I am now.

I remember someone once told me medicine does not have to be a one-way train ride. You can get off the train, explore other stations. That really echoed for me. I feel doctors are continually in a race to fellow that they miss so much life in the process. I honestly do feel that my experiences, although they may have slowed the process of obtaining a fellowship, have made me a much better and well-rounded doctor.

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What do you do to look after yourself and your own mental health and well-being?

I now can recognise the signs of burn out early and am able to act promptly. For me those signs were exhaustion, agitation and apathy with my colleagues and patients, loss of enthusiasm for work, and a sense of hopelessness. As soon as I notice one of these, alarm bells go off and I can act promptly.

When I am at work, I have learnt historically that lunch is a must and I always schedule a break during the day. During my break, I do my best to get out of the clinic and go for a little stroll to get some sun and fresh air. We all have long and hard days, and if they do happen, I do my best to de-brief when I can with a colleague.

I have recently become quite fond of practicing mindfulness. I try to be in the moment, whether it is going for a walk or having a coffee break. It is being totally immersed at the moment, the sounds, the colours. Just enjoying life at that very moment with no distractions. I also love to socialise with non-medical friends; it is so great to engage with companies where there is no mention of faeces or sputum. I also love to write and journal, but my greatest pleasure is exercising.

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Your Instagram features medical myths de-busted and medical information. What inspired you to start this account and share these things? You have accumulated quite a large social media following, so what is it like to be looked to as an influencer doctor?

The reality is that many people are inclined to make decisions based on things they see on social media. If the noise is the loudest and most influential on these social media engines, then we health professionals need to make more effort to engage in these digital platforms to provide appropriate up to date, evidence-based medicine, that is accessible to the online community.

I recently started a social media page @ask.the.dr and have been using my page to bust a lot of misinformation, all while trying to improve health literacy in the community.

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What is the Covid-19 situation like in your state, and how is your practice handling it? You share lots of information about the vaccine on your Instagram. How has this been received?

Working through the pandemic has been tough! I do believe GPs have been bearing the brunt of the circulating misinformation.

I have received mixed reviewed regarding my posts on vaccines. Many people are quite thankful for the information while some on the other hand have expressed their distaste and anger with my posts. I won’t sugar coat it, but I have received some threatening messages from anti-vaxers. At one stage, I considered deleting my account as some of the messages were quite hurtful and I could not pretend they were not affecting me.

However, for every one of these messages I was receiving many positive messages from people who were so thankful. Additionally, whilst I only provide generalist advice on my platform, I’m so thankful for those that have come forward and told me that my posts had inspired them to seek help and pick something up they would otherwise have ignored. In a way, this has helped me rediscover my love for medicine.

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Instagram: @ask.the.dr

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/mariamchaalan

Twitter: @spokenmedic

Dr Emily Neville is an exercise physiologist and doctor. As a doctor, she has experienced burnout not once, not twice, but annually.

We caught up with her to get some advice for other doctors on what these experiences have taught her about taking care of your mental health and wellbeing. 

Prior to becoming a doctor, I was an Exercise Physiologist. While I enjoyed my job, I realised I could have a different and more acute impact on patient outcomes by becoming a doctor. Currently, I am an unaccredited surgical registrar in Melbourne, on my own journey towards a career in surgery.

I have experienced burnout a few times. A few of my close med friends and I joke about my annual run-in with burnout. It has taken a few goes to determine my limits and not push myself past them. I have had to learn the skill of saying ‘no.’ In the first years of my career, I worked ridiculously hard, picked up everyone’s shifts, and ‘no’ was not a part of my vocabulary. I always ended up exhausted. 

I have just spent the last four months getting over severe burnout. The catalyst was having to work around 12 months of night shift over the last two years in an understaffed hospital. It was very difficult to say ‘no’ when no one could cover my shifts. This experience has shown me the absolute limit and highlighted the importance of support for unaccredited doctors in the public health system. 

Along with adequate support and knowing one's limits, it’s important to keep in mind your basic health needs in order to combat burnout. I think I function best with a regular sleep pattern, plenty of water, and a balanced diet. A great way to do this when you are busy with work is to have food delivered. I get Marley Spoon to make sure I always have wholesome food in the fridge. Plus, I enjoy cooking, and it helps me wind down. After working hard, I also like to treat myself somehow (I have a soft spot for shopping and buying snow gear)! 

For me personally, staying active and very physically fit is key for my happiness. I was a competitive triathlete for a large portion of my life and sport is something I have always been involved in. When I did not have the time for exercise due to my work commitments, I almost lost a part of myself. I think fresh air, vitamin D, yoga, swimming or anything active that you enjoy is important to keep life varied and take care of the mind and body.

Reading is a great way to leave work in the hospital or clinic and transport your mind somewhere else - that’s why I don’t read medical books.  I need a break from the profession when I get home. However, I do love to read. My favourite book is ‘A Rose for the Anzac Boys,’ and I am a long-time Harry Potter fan. 

The future is looking good; I am back to my active lifestyle, my fridge is full of Marley Spoon, and I am almost back to a normal sleep cycle. Hopefully, this year, putting myself first and setting aside “me time” for the things I love will help me stave off burnout.

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In 2016 Dr Danielle Dondiego was burnt out and exhausted. She was working 80-hour weeks, dealing with the stress and emotions that come alongside experiences on the front line, and at home, she was dealing with an abusive relationship. After losing several colleagues, Danielle began to ask herself if this was all worth it. Fast forward five years, and she is working in telemedicine while running a successful coaching business; she is a published author, and her bad relationship is a thing of the past.

Dr Danielle DonDiego is a board-certified Family Physician and Obesity Specialist. She also studied business at Virginia Tech and earned an MBA. We caught up with her to get advice for other doctors looking to advance their careers or change their lifestyles by taking locum shifts.

1. What tips could you give other doctors who want to advance their careers?

Be creative! You CAN and SHOULD use what you are naturally good at in your career. If you see a gap you want to solve, just do it. In most cases, you don't need permission or another degree to be bold and start something of your own.

2. What advice can you offer doctors working full-time on manifesting and securing their dream jobs?

My ultimate advice is to create it. However, if creating a job from scratch feels too risky, look for jobs exactly what you envision. SteadyMD was that for me. Not many colleagues understood what I was doing when I started working in telemedicine 4 years ago. Could we really doctor online? Was I going to lose my skills? It turns out that 2020 showed us the need and gap we could easily fill, having already been doing this for years. It's ok to work unconventionally and let go of whatever others may think of you - your happiness is still the number one priority.

3. You mention the importance of creating a positive relationship with money on your website. Can you provide some steps doctors can take to achieve this?

Yes! I love discussing money with other doctors, mostly related to mindset. We have a unique situation where most of us graduated with a LOT of debt and feel frantic about paying it off. We also want to live our lives, and maybe never had a finance course in our educational past. Maybe our households didn't discuss money in a healthy way either. All of this plays into how we spend, save, and invest. There are a lot of broke doctors living paycheck to paycheck, and this greatly contributes to mental health issues and feeling locked into a job they may not truly feel aligned with. We have to stop making money a taboo topic.

4. From a medical industry perspective, can you provide some tips on turning burnout into workplace inspiration?

From my experience, our personal story perfectly sets us up for what we are capable of accomplishing and are called to create. Use what you know, what you see, what you've personally experienced. There is no way your experience won't help someone else out there silently going through the same thing. Releasing my story in "Self-Care Rx" was one way I was able to do that. Rejecting the 80-hour work week is another. I radically put myself before anyone else, and that has been very taboo in medicine.

5. Can you provide some tips for doctors interviewing for their dream role on presenting themselves and creating their brand?

Personal branding is so important! Don't be afraid to discuss your interests outside of the job you are after. I always loved hearing about residency applicants' interests outside of work. Who are they? What do they stand for? Is this someone I want to be on call with for 24 hours? This may be more radical advice, but if you end up at a job where the culture is not welcoming of WHO you actually are, you will be unhappy no matter the salary. So don't hide who you are. Go where you are celebrated, not what you think the world wants to see.

6. Can you provide some tips for doctors on harnessing a mindset for success?

I would first ask them how they personally define success. The world may say one thing, but you may have an entirely different definition deep down. If you aren't happy, external success is really meaningless. I choose to live in an apartment instead of buying the big dream home because I define my personal success differently than the world sees. I know what I value and what I don't. If you don't know your personal core values, success will be hard to define, so start there.

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Dr Mel McNiff is an exceptional doctor. She describes herself as part Emergency Registrar and part feral adventurer. An outdoor sporting enthusiast and expedition medic, Mel believes in living life to the fullest—that means doing things like taking on her first-ever half-ironman triathlon at the same time as her medical exam!

But Mel's dedication to adventure hasn't prevented her from experiencing burnout.

When she posted on her Instagram about the best career advice she ever got and how it helped her combat burnout, her fellow doctors commented and showed support.

Medworld's mission is to provide a platform where doctors can share their experiences and learn from one another. Given the problems the healthcare industry is facing globally, we wanted to share Mel's blog post because we found the way she opened up about her own situation both moving and inspirational. We suspect it would be relatable to doctors all over the world.

What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received? It was, “Find something outside of medicine to be passionate about.”‍

Like many of us, my identity has been so tightly entwined with being a doctor my entire adult life.

Starting at 15, building an impeccable application to get into medical school. Work-experience. Straight A’s. Extra-curricular activities. Passing medical school exams whilst learning how to do research and quality improvement.

Being a good FY1. Being abused daily at work. Choosing a speciality. If you’re me, cycling through several specialties. Learning how to step up to registrar. Studying for the sleuth of primary exams. Courses. Conferences. Networking. Studying for fellowship exams.

Keeping up to date with changes in best practice. Eternal shift work. The emotional toll of dealing with death every day. Struggling with relationships and friendships because you have no emotional energy left to give.

And when you burn out? The overwhelming sense of failure…

Failure at something you’ve dedicated your entire life to…

Everything is so entwined it’s impossible to see where you as a doctor ends and you as a human starts.

I haven’t always gotten it right, and I have joked that I’ve cried in hospital toilets around the world. If that’s you right now, I truly feel you.

You are not in this alone.

I now fiercely pursue my wild. I love going rogue without any particular goal other than to see something beautiful. To come back covered in bruises, scratches, mud, and snow with stories of how I narrowly escaped the wrath of a wild animal and have friends shake their heads in disbelief.

To know I was something other than a doctor today. Whatever that may be for you, medicine has no right to take it.

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After finishing school, I aspired to be a professional jazz musician. After a few unsuccessful auditions, I decided to take a gap year before starting a science degree at Melbourne University. Travel and work grounded me in the realisation that music was my passion rather than a profession. Thus, I began university initially in a rather undifferentiated state.

Exposure to anatomy, physiology, and pathology made me realise my love for medical sciences. So, in my final year of undergraduate study, I took the GAMSAT and applied to medical schools. My decision to do medicine was based on a love of medical learning, exposure to the positive impact doctors can have on their patients, and the tangible gratification of the work.

Life in medicine in the 21st century is a complex and convoluted ‘choose your adventure’ that junior doctors should intuitively navigate.

Many of my mates from medical school always knew what they wanted to do. It just felt right to them. Ah, the complexity of choice! My problem has always been that I’m passionate about everything that I do. I love sports, music, learning, carpentry, gardening, and cooking up a storm. I was exposed to fantastic sub-specialty surgery as I started my surgical residency. Still, I found I’d lost a part of myself, living a unidimensional life spent almost entirely in the hospital. So, I decided to take some time to figure out what I wanted to do when I grew up.

I bought a van, spent three months retrofitting it, and then headed off on a trip around Australia with an open heart and mind, a surfboard, and a stethoscope.

Doing locum work allowed me to fund the trip and, more importantly, keep up my clinical skills on the road. I worked in Bairnsdale to avoid the floods, in Lismore to get some ICU time, in Gold Coast for six weeks of Orthopedics, and Sunshine Coast Private doing ward cover. There were pros and cons to each place where I worked. On balance, the great people at each hospital were the continuing highlight.

The biggest life-changing factor of the year off has been having time to reflect and decide what I want to do with my life and clinical career. Having space to reflect has allowed me to think through all the key considerations regarding what I find meaningful and what I need in a job. From these reflections, I realised that despite the sometimes onerous time commitments, surgical training was something I very much wanted to do. So, I decided to embark on the path to urological training.

On a personal note, locum work has allowed me time to travel internationally, during which I’ve met my current partner, started a diploma in cuisine, restarted my triathlon training, and re-established contacts for an English urology research year I will be doing next year.

In short, I started this year a bit lost, and a year of locum work has given me time and financial ability to take a step back and re-evaluate my life plan. I’ve decided on a career path, re-ignited many of my passions, and fallen in love. If you’re reading this as a junior doctor who is lost, unhappy, or searching for more, I couldn’t advocate for taking a year to sit with the biggest question of our career and allow yourself quiet enough to hear the answer.

GP and wellbeing advocate Dr Anita Raja spoke to Medworld Institute about her experiences as a doctor and the challenges of maintaining good mental health in the profession.

"I was born into a South Asian family, and the dream of having a doctor in your family outweighs any otherworldly desire. My father always wanted me to become a doctor; I was always into performing arts."

Experiencing burnout:

Dr Raja revealed that she has experienced burnout, a common issue among healthcare professionals. She highlighted the overwhelming demand for medical care, lack of access to secondary care, social care, mental health, and housing support as the causes.

"There is huge information overload on the internet, which increases health anxiety and overmedicalisation of normal life. I am a family physician (GP), dealing with people from cradle to grave, all ages, and diverse. Yet, due the huge understaffing and overwhelming demand for medical care, lack of access to secondary care, social care, mental health, and lack of housing support ... we end up managing issues that sometimes leave us helpless and frustrated because we can't meet the patient's need. We are trained to offer high-quality care, and when we fail to meet that standard, we burn out. The BMA has reported that 90% of GPs have felt burnt out at some point in their career, more so post-pandemic."

Despite these challenges, she has learned to take breaks, switch off her phone, engage in mindfulness, and spend quality time with her family. She stresses the importance of being grateful and putting things into perspective, which has helped her maintain her mental health and well-being.

"I sometimes just sit in my garden and listen to the birds chirping. This is the biggest form of appreciation for health and life. I belong to a culture where we are reminded repeatedly to be grateful for what we have. I always try to put things into perspective. My husband and sons play a huge role in maintaining my sanity."

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Becoming an advocate for mental health and wellbeing:

Dr Raja is a passionate advocate for wellbeing and mental health, motivated by her own experience of cultural values that silenced her mental health struggles.

"Having a nervous breakdown around the time my son was born in 2013" prompted her to become an advocate.

She worked with Acacia Family Support to spread awareness about perinatal mental health in the South Asian community.  Watch: Dr Anita talks about perinatal mental health in Urdu - YouTube.

She believes that our lows and failures help us evolve into better people and highlights the paramount effects of mental health on relationships, "had I not suffered myself, I would have been oblivious of the paramount affect it can have on us and our relationships," she explained.

Dr Raja has also worked to overcome vaccine hesitancy among the BAME (Black, Asian, and minority ethnic) community.

"I am multilingual. I used this as a tool during the Covid-19 pandemic. BBC Asian Network was looking for URDU speakers, and I have a background in broadcasting for Pakistan Television. Hence, I recorded four videos for them, which helped spread awareness within our URDU /Hindi-speaking community."

Her awareness of mental health and well-being allowed her to recognise the challenges that the pandemic has brought to healthcare professionals. She also emphasises the need to take care of oneself.

"I think the COVID-19 pandemic was a challenging time for healthcare professionals. I was pregnant and delivered in August 2020. It was a huge learning curve for us all, reminding us what we had signed up for in a real-world war zone: man vs. virus. The anxiety was real, yet I am glad we all played our roles as healthcare professionals and pulled through."

Advice for other doctors:

Dr Raja advises doctors who want to start attending to their health and well-being to speak to someone and not blame themselves for letting others down. She emphasises the importance of looking after oneself, stating that one can only look after others if they are well enough.

"I try to count my blessings. It's important to never lose insight. Everybody has something to be grateful for."

Her message highlights the importance of maintaining good mental health in the healthcare profession, where burnout and other issues can be common. Her experiences and advice offer valuable insight and encourage healthcare professionals to prioritise their well-being.

"Please, look after yourself. If you are struggling, don't shy away from speaking to your supervisor or your colleagues, and don't blame yourself for letting others down. You can only look after others if you are well enough yourself. If you feel low, depressed, burnt out .... you are more likely to make wrong decisions and put others at risk. Stop and ask yourself if you are safe to work. If you even have a glimmer of doubt, take a step back till you feel fully confident."

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You can connect with Dr Anita Raja on the following pages:

Instagram: @dranitaraja

Twitter: @dranitaraja

Website: https://www.dranitaraja.com/

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