Be your authentic self – Dr. Yami Lancaster

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Yami Lancaster is a phenomenal Pediatrician and human being located in Yakima, Washington. She started her own micropractice and has never been happier as a physician. Topics from this conversation include: the difficulties within the journey of becoming a doctor, the need to transition to her own practice, her advice for finding happiness, tips for success, ideas to improve healthcare, and much more.
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Check out more from Yami!
Yami Cazorla-Lancaster, DO, MPH, MS, CHWC, FAAP
email: dryami@nourishyakima.com
websites: www.NourishYakima.com and www.VeggieFitKids.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NourishYakima/ and https://www.facebook.com/veggiefitkids/
YouTube: Veggie Fit Kids
Office number: 509-969-6214
Resource from discussion: www.TUT.com

Time Stamps/Highlights
+ 1:42 – Yami’s Introduction
+3:20 – Discussion of the National Health Service Corps
+6:13 – “Would you have considered yourself a happy medical student?”
+7:20 – Learn more about difficulties in medicine and sleep deprivation
+9:55 – Learn about the transition from medical school to residency
+14:32 – Answer the question of “what is happiness to you?”
+16:10 –Yami discusses why she felt she needed to transition out of being an employee
+19:13 – Advice to physicians on developing their happiness
+20:40 –We answer the question of “What information would you like to have heard as a younger self?”
+22:50 –Yami explains the tools she utilizes to empower herself
+25:46 – Yami describes her current practice structure
+27:16 – We define a micropractice
+29:34 – We answer: “What would you say to an aspiring student who wants to become a physician”?
+31:50 – We answer: “What mistakes do you see students, residents, or Attending physicians make on the path of medicine?”
+32:55 – Yami explains the best advice she received from a mentor
+35:53 – We explore the idea of how to improve medical culture
+39:00 – We answer: “In an ideal world how would you train a pre-medical, medical, resident as opposed to how it is currently?”
+42:40 – closing remarks

Transcript

Yami’s practice: “Nourish Wellness” for past 7 months as a Pediatrician in Yakima, Washington

Opportunity for Medical Students: National Health Service Corps Scholarship
-A scholarship service that pays for medical school in return for service in underserved communities.
-The program also supplies a stipend
-You must go into primary care
-They do not pay for other degrees such as MPH
-Has a part-time option for service

In Medicine realize: Your time is not completely your own
-you are bound to somebody else’s schedule

As a resident you will be sleep deprived
-Sleep deprivation was the difficult part
-It can make you depressed/anxious
-Yami is an advocate for improving sleep in medical culture.
-We should be following the instructions we tell our patients.
-We are very sleep deprived as a country
-Yami was subjected to staying up 24 hours to 30 hours at a time

When you transfer into residency expect to feel anxious and unsure of knowing enough
-The experience is scarier and there is more responsibility
-There is a worry of making a mistake
-Yami experienced anxiety – especially on acute rotations like ICU and NICU
-The workload can be high 80-100 hour work weeks

There are plenty of great residency programs
-Yami loved her residency program
-She felt very supported, felt like it her residency followed all of the hourly requirements
-She felt excited for her training and learning

Transitioning from Resident to Attending is a difficult leap
–You are now really on your own, no attending to ask, no senior resident
-Yami felt nervous at times, even double checking simple tasks such as Tylenol doses

Consider being a new attending at a location with more mentorship
-Yami chose her first official job as an attending with plenty of mentorship, and found it helpful to gain help

“It takes 3 -5 years before you feel comfortable as an attending”
-should feel nervous up to 5 years
–still should keep the option of contacting colleagues and knowing your resources
-Maintain your openness to ask for help on diagnosis
-She had physical symptoms due to nerves of the job – feeling the weight of responsibility and saying “I’m an attending now”
-You should not feel comfortable right away in this role

The definition of happiness

“Happiness is the ability to slow down, find moments of peace and stillness, and favor the life I’m leading”
-Yami starting her own practice which allowed her to have more space
-Working part-time while serving for the NHSC helped but wasn’t what she wanted

Opening up your own practice can allow you  to fulfill your dream
-Having a practice allowed her to be creative, actively apply ideas to the practice, and feel free
-She was more so able to fulfill her vision that she wanted as a little girl
-She now allows herself feel to be a mother, to get massages, to exercise, and fulfill her own needs

You must be very efficient working in a traditional setting. Lack the time to work through the patients as well
-Saw up to 24-26 patients per day, made phone calls, checked labs
-The days were long and “my brain was overwhelmed”
-The patient load made it difficult to think through things and forced making quick decisions
-Yami loves to teach and give patient’s information that make them feel good.
-She felt like she needed to shorten things and leave things out in the traditional setting
-She felt she wasn’t practicing authentically in a way that aligned with her values
“I was dissatisfied and I know I wanted to start something that felt better to me that aligned with my vision as a little girl”

Yami’s message to physicians on creating their happiness: Become clear in your vision
-Sit down, journal, and draw out your vision
-Decide what you want
-If what you are doing is not what you want, create what you want
-It is not easy with finances and family, but when your vision is clear you can work towards it.

Yami’s biggest tip she wished she heard sooner: Do more personal work on yourself

-“I wish I would have had time and ability to do personal development work”
-“I was fortunate to have had time to work on myself, was able to see life through different lens”
–she admits to needing to work through a lot of depressed thinking and an disordered eating habits
-she now has many tools that have helped her succeed

Tools for empowerment: meditation, seeking help, and give yourself permission
-Yami is a daily meditator (as essential as brushing tooth)
-She gained confidence after working with a life coach
-She had issues with body image and suffered from eating disorder for decades and this lifecoach helped her gain tools for success
-Yami admits to generalized disordered eating which really brought her down
-Yami’s message: “Seek help if you are suffering from eating disorder or other sort of depressed thinking, it can really help!”
-It is important to normalize – “so many people suffer in silence” –
–listener you have permission to go find help
-can contact Yami to learn more from her (contact information provided)

The Pediatric Micropractice
-she has almost 100 patients
-she wants around 200-250 active patient to feel full (her panel was 1800 patients as a part-time physician)
-Works currently Monday, Wednesday, Friday form 9AM to 5PM
-She makes herself available
-She has time to workout for example Jazzercise

Pre-medical and Medical students – keep your vision alive
-Remember why you wanted to do this
-Keep working towards your vision
-Don’t get bogged down by all the things that bother you
-People will discourage you
-Go into this and make a positive change
-If you haven’t seen a happy physician – shadow a happy doctor so you know what you are getting yourself into
-Shadow yami – she takes in medical students and college students
-The deeper you go into training the harder it is to remember why you went into it
-Keep pursuing your dreams

“Don’t get stuck in the shoulds”
-People get stuck in what they should do
-We should really use our intuition and dig down deep to determine what we really want to do, regardless of what other people want us to do

Yami’s Favorite materials
–Success principles by Jack Canfield –
-Totally unique thought by Mike Dooly
–“The Secret”

Medical culture is missing flexibility and variety
-Conservative culture of “we’ve always done things this way”
-Humans are afraid of change
-There are so many creative solutions to the healthcare crisis we are having now

Medical culture should  enforce joy and happiness
-Should not be a guilty sin to be happy
-Should strive to find a work-life balance
-“Always done it this way… doesn’t allow the space for creative work”

Medical culture should look at things upstream
–Our system is overburdened and collapsing
-There are not enough people addressing prevention and actual reversal of disease
-Diet and lifestyle can prevent and potentially reverse chronic disease

Ideal medical training should include immersing the patient experience sooner
-“We should get students immersed sooner, so can apply things sooner to the real world”
-A lot of schools don’t touch patients till 3rd year

Ideal medical training should include diet and lifestyle
-This should be added in serious way
-Not a brief 2-3 hours of lecture material

Yami’s message: you have a special light within you
–You have permission to shine your light that makes sense to you
-You never know how your presence might impact people around you.
–It is important for all of us to come of our shells and live a life that is authentic to ourselves and matches our values
–Shine your light and pursue the happiness you deserve