Jennifer Shaer is a pediatrician.

What is your physician well-being strategy?

Physician
October 31, 2025

Every health care organization measures recruitment and retention. HR teams work to offer competitive packages based on salary, benefits, PTO, and CME allowances. These details matter. But for today’s physicians, these are simply the baseline. The physicians entering and shaping today’s workforce expect more. They have new lines of questioning related to the amount of evening and weekend coverage, call schedules, administrative time, and available support staff. Today’s physicians will …

Read more…

What is your physician well-being strategy?

Surviving an EHR upgrade

Physician
November 13, 2023

My practice is about to change to a new electronic health record, and I can’t help but feel dread. The last time we did this, it was so stressful. I really don’t want to go through it again. What do I do? How do I prepare? Here is what I’m doing to get ready. I think it’s a good strategy for managing change in general, and I hope it helps …

Read more…

Surviving an EHR upgrade

Reevaluating beliefs: the role of real doctors

Physician
October 26, 2023

Real doctors see patients. For years, I have held this thought as a truth. But it’s not a fact; it’s a belief, and it is no longer serving me.

I’ve been questioning this belief for a while, but this weekend at the American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference and Exhibition, I gained some clarity. There, I met, heard from, and spoke with so many fascinating physicians—physicians who are doing all sorts …

Read more…

Reevaluating beliefs: the role of real doctors

Navigating patient requests: Balancing care and communication

Physician
August 25, 2023

If you are a practicing physician, then you have definitely come across patients who want something that you feel is unnecessary. Sometimes those conversations escalate and become contentious, and sometimes you reluctantly give the patient what they request even though you know it’s not “best practice.” These demands and interactions can weigh on us and leave us emotionally drained.

In the pediatrics office, that can look like this:

Navigating patient requests: Balancing care and communication

5 tips for ending office visits on time

Physician
July 17, 2023

The visit is winding down. You’re getting ready to go, hand on the doorknob, saying goodbye. And then you hear, “Doc, one more thing.” Or perhaps you’re more familiar with the patient who has a laundry list of issues all to be addressed in the fifteen-minute appointment slot.

These visits have in common that they are both certain to back you up. Have multiple in the day, and you are …

Read more…

5 tips for ending office visits on time

Effective delegation: the key to unlocking more time and less stress in your busy life

Physician
May 5, 2023

How many times have you wished that you had more time? Do you feel like you’re too busy? Feel frazzled, rushed, and stressed?

No matter how much fame and fortune we may have, time is one thing that money can’t buy. One constant for every single one of us. Whether you are Jeff Bezos or a frenzied physician, we all only have 24 hours a day, seven days a week, …

Read more…

Effective delegation: the key to unlocking more time and less stress in your busy life

Why your intuition is key to better physical and emotional health

Physician
February 26, 2023

In residency, we are trained to follow our intuition. In pediatrics,  this translates into learning how to recognize a sick kid. Of course, we are taught what to look for on the physical exam and the labs and what protocols to follow, but we are also taught how to listen to our instincts. When our gut tells us we have a sick kid, we don’t overthink; we set into action. …

Read more…

Why your intuition is key to better physical and emotional health

Breaking the burnout: How health care leaders can support physician well-being

Physician
February 1, 2023

Recently I was scrolling through posts from a physician leadership Facebook group. I came upon one that caught my eye. It said something like, “Does anyone have information I can share with my radiologists to show them the impact of working through lunch?”

I was happy to see a post that focused on physician well-being. A leader who cares enough and wants her physicians to take a break. And then …

Read more…

Breaking the burnout: How health care leaders can support physician well-being

Are pediatricians too nice?

Physician
January 1, 2023

One summer a few years ago, I went to pick my son up from camp. He was attending a week-long specialty day camp where the kids spent a week with an expert in some area of interest. The camp offered everything from basketball, soccer, and tennis to acting, magic, and chess. It was the first time I was going to pick him up, and I wasn’t exactly sure where to …

Read more…

Are pediatricians too nice?

The holidays can open up a range of emotions

Physician
December 22, 2022

Physician suicide rates are unacceptably high at baseline and go even higher during the holidays. The holiday increase in suicide rates is not unique to physicians, though. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), A 2021 survey showed that 3 in 5 Americans feel their mental health is negatively impacted by the holidays.

And suicide is a problem that goes beyond the …

Read more…

The holidays can open up a range of emotions

In memory of all the fathers lost to COVID-19

Physician
June 20, 2020

In April, I lost my dad to COVID-19, and this Father’s Day will be very difficult. As I was thinking about this, it occurred to me that many people out there suffer the same fate. Each death is not just a statistic. Each number represents a person with a family.   My dad was an amazing father, husband, uncle, grandfather, and friend, and he will be missed.

As difficult as it was to …

Read more…

In memory of all the fathers lost to COVID-19

A physician awakens to racism in America

Health Policy
June 15, 2020

Until recently, I didn’t really understand the meaning behind the Black Lives Matter movement. I was one of those people who felt, “of course, black lives matter; all lives matter.” I mean, that’s exactly why I became a doctor in the first place. To help people. All people. I would venture to say that with my rose-colored glasses and white privilege (that I didn’t know I had), I was even …

Read more…

A physician awakens to racism in America