Welcome to The Good Listening Podcast where we share the healing power of listening and poetry through the stories of healthcare leaders, heroes, and healers, as told to our Listener Poets. This is a creation of The Good Listening Project, a nonprofit that helps fight burnout and supports wellness and resilience in healthcare.

This first episode of The Good Listening Podcast focuses on burnout. A frequent topic in our conversations was the emotional, spiritual, and physical exhaustion resulting from stress and burnout. Even though these poemees acknowledged burnout as an occupational hazard, many expressed being unprepared for the extent to which providing care during a pandemic would increase their own and their colleagues’ burnout.

Many of the poemees we listened to were actively engaged in the creative process of making meaning during the stressful and often chaotic world of COVID-19. Physicians spoke of finding ways to keep treating patients whose prognosis was not good. They also shared the challenge of moving forward following the death of a patient. Medical educators often wondered whether their actions were making the impact that they hoped--especially during the fast pivot to remote learning in the early days of the pandemic. And many Poemees found themselves dealing with their own personal losses as a backdrop to losses they faced on the job.