Tami Berry, MD

Bryn Mawr, PA

My burnout journey began in 2010, insidiously. This was before burnout was a buzzword. In fact, it wasn’t until 2015 (a full two years after leaving my surgical practice and medicine) that I would even know what burnout was and that I was suffering from it. The subtle feelings of detachment from my profession, patients, and colleagues grew stronger. Then an incredible loss of enthusiasm and meaning in my work followed and steadily worsened. This is when I knew I needed to step away before someone got hurt. My daily life was increasingly plagued by feelings of exhaustion, isolation, and a sense of hopelessness. I denied a truth I could not name, but it faced me in the mirror each morning.

As burnout in healthcare continues to rise at unprecedented rates, I am highly attuned to the pain people in healthcare are experiencing. We desperately need a healthcare system that is healthy, resilient, humanistic, and highly adaptive. So when I was asked to join The Osler Symposia at the onset of 2016, I immediately knew that I wanted to be part of this movement. It is my great honor to work alongside others who so courageously and earnestly champion the need for clinicians to transition from a place of barely surviving to one of truly thriving so they can perform at their highest level, from a deep and full reservoir of self-compassion, meaning, and wellbeing.