Physician & Physician Leaders

• Leadership confidence for physicians and physician leaders.
• Increased ability to function in complex environments. 
• Onboarded or promoted physician leader & executive support.
• Support alternative to therapy for physicians and executives.*
• Remedial issues.

We identify where and how physicians waste their cognitive and emotional energies, and we plug the leaks. Whether it’s burnout, imposter syndrome, leadership confidence, rumination: our coaching helps physicians thrive in every context of their lives. Fern EPC is a fast track to the adaptive growth necessary for physicians, physician leaders, and healthcare executives to flourish in complex environments.

Physicians dedicate their young lives to technical growth; pre-med requirements, preparing for and taking the MCAT, medical school, passing the boards, residency, and so on. This laser focus on technical growth often results in neglected adaptive growth. But here’s the rub: The adaptive capacities are essential to flourishing in complex environments.

We use a type of leadership development called “Immunity to Change.” ITC posits that the mind of a leader has its own immune system, just like the body. Sometimes your immune system will perceive positive change and growth as threats. ITC methodology is designed to help you, your team, and your organization attain deeply sought changes by illuminating your unconscious “immunity to change.”

The cognitive and emotional energies of your physicians, physician leaders, and executives are your organization’s most valuable resource. Fern EPC helps reclaim the misdirected cognitive and emotional energies of your high performers considered by industrial psychologists to be the #1 wasted resource for any healthcare organization.

• The cost of replacing a physician is estimated to be from $500,000 to $1,000,000. Fern EPC developmental coaching reduces the likelihood of turnover.
• The majority of physicians in the United States report experiencing some symptoms of burnout. Fern EPC reduces physician burnout.
• Increased Work Satisfaction
• Increased Productivity
• Increased Effectiveness

Fern EPC uses a change-facilitation method called Immunity to Change. Of all the types of developmental consulting out there, Immunity to Change (ITC) is particularly well suited to support doctors and healthcare executives. As the name implies, ITC helps you manage change and empowers you to reclaim misdirected cognitive and emotional energies.

But unlike other developmental methods, ITC provides something far more useful for you as a physician and/or healthcare executive. ITC will help you achieve higher levels of adult development, supporting you as you grow into the kind of leadership complexity needed to navigate today’s incredibly complex healthcare world.

We understand that physicians nowadays endure a staggering level of complexity. The average doctor spends half of their workday and an extra 28 hours a month fulfilling electronic health record duties. There is a shortage of doctors in some specialties, and by 2032 there will be an even more serious shortage of doctors. Levels of physician depression continue to increase, and healthcare organizations are finding themselves having to address issues like physician fatigue, stress, and burnout. The latter alone is a serious problem: over 40% of physicians show at least one symptom of burnout; that burnout costs the US healthcare system a whopping $4.6 billion each year. Eighty three percent of clinicians, clinical leaders, and healthcare executives consider physician burnout a serious or moderate problem. Our physician coaching and consulting services can help.

*Fern EPC does not provide mental health services.

Not all physicians are born Self-Authored, but many end up that way, nonetheless. As children, many were quiet, studious, self-motivated, and heavily invested in academic pursuits. In college, when the rest of us were playing Frisbee or Hacky Sack outdoors, most budding physicians were slaving away in their internships or residencies “where 80-hour weeks are the norm.” Throughout their early careers, physicians are taught to apply scientifically based, ordered thinking to the problems laid before them. They are continuously challenged to find repeatable and predictable correlations between stimuli and outcomes, and they are recognized and rewarded for doing so. Rational choice and intentional capacity are the foundational psychological tools for physicians, and some of these were the Self-Authoring strengths required to thrive in the healthcare industry of old. But the healthcare context has changed. The traditional strengths alone won’t necessarily do.

Healthcare Organizations are creating many programs to support their physicians. Some are streamlining EHRs to reduce screen time. Some are improving communication and management skills of their point-of-care leaders, still others are implementing wellness programs that include meditation and yoga. Fern EPC coaching can be a valuable addition to these efforts. There are too many “agents of influence” to rely on technical solutions alone. Fern EPC coaching empowers physicians and physician leaders to embrace the thinking complexity required to match the complexity they face in their daily work.