Episode 56: Emotional Flatline to Fierce Advocate: Physician Mom Dr. Pamela Buchanan Speaks Out

What happens when the healer hits a wall? When the one who’s always strong – the high-achiever, the fixer, the go-to problem solver — starts to go numb inside?

In this powerful episode, I sit down with Dr. Pamela Buchanan, a purpose-driven physician and burnout recovery coach whose story is as raw as it is resilient.

She opens up about what it meant to navigate medicine during the COVID-19 pandemic… and how she found her way back from emotional flatline.

Dr. Buchanan gets real about the hidden cost of white coats, the stigma surrounding mental health in our field, and why she’s fiercely committed to helping other physicians stay in practice without sacrificing themselves.

She loves to teach people to stand in their power.

You’ll leave this conversation feeling seen, stirred, and without a doubt, more hopeful.

Let’s dive in.

Meet Physician Mom Dr. Pamela Buchanon

Dr. Pamela Buchanan is a board-certified physician, author, and keynote speaker dedicated to helping women physicians and executives overcome burnout and thrive in their careers. With two decades of experience in emergency and private practice medicine, she understands the relentless pressures of high-stakes professions and the toll they take on mental and physical well-being.

As a burnout recovery coach, Dr. Buchanan’s mission is to keep more physicians in practice in a healthy, sustainable way—because not everyone can or should quit. She helps high-achieving professionals reclaim their purpose, set boundaries, and build careers that support their well-being instead of depleting it.

She is the author of White Coat: Black Face – How to Recover from Your Emotional Flatline, a powerful memoir chronicling her career, the pandemic, and the challenges of navigating medicine as a Black female physician. Her work has also been featured in the anthologies Triumph in the Trenches II and Compassion in Color.

Dr. Buchanan is also the founder of Strong Medicine STL, a telemedicine practice specializing in weight loss and wellness. She is passionate about equipping professionals with the tools to stay well, thrive, and redefine success on their own terms.

A Physician’s Path: Early Inspiration and the Realities of Emergency Medicine

Dr. Cindy: [00:00:00] Good morning, Dr. Buchanan. I’m so happy to see you here.

Dr. Buchanan: I’m so happy to be here. I’ve been flying all night and I’m just glad to be seeing your smiling face.

Dr. Cindy: Oh, thank you. I’m glad to see your smiling face, which is impressive after flying all night.

Dr. Buchanan: You know, I smile because I’m out of the airport. It is probably one of my least favorite places.

Dr. Cindy: I agree. And, on the airplane. I don’t know which is worse. I just let everybody know a bit of your history in the intro to today’s episode. So, they know all about you. I’m just going to dive right in with questions, if that’s okay.

Dr. Buchanan: Wow, for people to know all about me. This is the other way around.

Dr. Cindy: I know you’re in the other seat now. So, you’re obviously a physician and your journey in medicine has been deeply personal and filled with multiple challenges.

Can you share a bit about your path in medicine and how it led you [00:01:00] to what you were doing today?

Dr. Buchanan: So, my path, I’ve wanted to be a doctor since I was 12. My pediatrician was so cool. I grew up [in a] lower middle class, to poor African American community. And there weren’t many black doctors.

My doctor was Dr. Nash, and she always poured into me. She was a, now I know as an adult, she was a community advocate.

And she told me that I did not have to succumb to the things that other people may succumb to, like any crime or teen pregnancy, and that I should think about what I want to do – and that’s like I like science. I am neurodivergent and when I was younger, I learned differently.

People weren’t kind in the eighties, they would say, well, I think she is slow. And then we all know that’s not the way to describe things. And my mother said – she was an advocate before people were really being big advocates for this type of thing – she said, “She learns differently.”

I was tested. I’m good at [00:02:00] math and science and I had to work at verbal skills. And so I went to off-site gifted classes, and that was what changed everything for me. Just getting into the right space so I could learn the way that suits me.

And now I know I’m an active learner. I can’t just sit for hours and hours. I do things like sit on a ball when I’m working and walk around. And you have to learn those things.

Now it’s mainstream. My kids get those activities at school. So, from there, I wanted to become a doctor. I went on to go to medical school and tried to figure out what kind of doctor I wanted to be.

I like helping. I like prevention. I like really making a difference, but I also like the fast pace. And so, I was training in family medicine, but I practiced emergency medicine my whole career. I do emergency medicine now predominantly. It was better for my family. The shift work, but boy, does that burn you out?

It is a grind. When I first started the average life expectancy of an ER doctor was [00:03:00] 10 years. I hear that it’s now seven, which is wild to me to go to school all that time only to be able to work for 10 years.

I’ve been practicing for 20, but it’s had its challenges. Of course, we all know the pandemic. The pandemic exacerbated the things we already knew were wrong with medicine. Like not enough people, and even more quit.

And so, you got the stress of being overworked and overwhelmed. We have patients boarding in the ER for hours, sometimes days because there’s no bed. There is a physical bed, but there’s nobody to work the bed.

Like there’s not a nurse. And so, I’m practicing medicine that I’m, quite frankly, not trained to practice because I’m practicing as a hospitalist and sometimes as an intensivist because the patients are stuck in the ER.

And so, as you can imagine, that’s causing myself and many of my colleagues not to want to do this anymore.

But what frustrates me the most is administration not [00:04:00] understanding that just throwing money at the situation is not the answer.

You have to treat people like humans. And I wish that’s what they would get through their head. Not cogs in a wheel. But humans. And currently, I choose to work at a smaller facility now.

I still work very prn, even though I’m doing other work, because they treat me like a human. And they treat everybody like that.

They kind of know a lot of nuances of everybody’s story. Who’s Christian? Who’s Muslim? Who wants to be off on Ramadan? Who wants to be off on Christmas? And I think that is something that they have figured out out of necessity.

Because they’re competing with hospitals who can pay more. But I’m sure gladly take pay cut for the kind of humanity I experienced at this hospital. So, and then you take all those things coupled with sexism and racism, it makes life trying.

Dr. Cindy: I bet everyone wants to know what hospital you’re working at. They’re going to apply there.

Dr. Buchanan: You know what? It’s so rare. I’m in [00:05:00] Missouri and this is a small hospital. It’s an hour outside from my city and I’ll gladly drive there. It’s called St. Genevieve. It’s a small, rural community and I’ve never experienced a workplace like this kind.

Dr. Cindy: Wow. That sounds like a dream to work in a place that treats you like a human and as a physician.

Dr. Buchanan: Like I’ve worked at, you know, throughout my career, at least six different hospitals and have never experienced it like this. I’m like taking notes, so it’s like somebody needs to write a standard operating procedure. It’s mainly the management; they’ve really figured it out.

And that needs to spread. Not, not the CEOs, it’s the clinical management who kind of figured it out.

Dr. Cindy: You said since you were aged 10 or 12 with Dr. Nash, you wanted to be a physician, and you made it.

Dr. Buchanan: I remember I was 12 years old, right, right around sixth grade.

Dr. Cindy: Oh, wow. That’s amazing. And I know you’re going to get to the point where you [00:06:00] experienced burnout or did you? And just tell me a little bit about that.

COVID-19 and Physician Burnout: Trauma and the Search for Mental Health Support

Dr. Buchanan: Oh yeah, definitely experienced burnout, hit the brick wall. Yeah. During the pandemic, I was working at a different hospital, and this was more of a grind until you die hospital.

It’s a system. And I traveled to different hospitals and during the pandemic, you know, no one knew what to do. Right. Let’s be honest.

We, you know, things were changing. We’re on the front lines. And I remember when they said ibuprofen would be deadly to the patients.

Yeah, that was the thing we were trying to control fevers. And we have some people who are allergic to acetaminophen and we’re like, what to do. So, just navigating what clinical practices to do, and the overwhelm of the patient population.

So, I was on staff at a rural hospital an hour and a half outside of St. Louis. And at first it was dead, radio silence, you know, like, okay, the pandemic is [00:07:00] just in New York.

But all of a sudden, like an avalanche, because I’m in an area where they don’t believe in COVID, just really don’t. I mean, like, fighting words. And so, nobody was really following the restrictions in this town.

In fact, they had a big wedding. And we named it the “Red Wedding” afterwards because what happened was after this wedding of about 200 people – the mother of the bride came in, the mother-in-law, and one after the other, COVID, COVID, COVID.

And several people died, all from, from being in contact at this wedding. And that began the pandemic in this community.

And it’s bad in the cities, but in the rural areas, the resources are less. I oftentimes joke that I’m trying to put someone together with some bubble gum and shoestring. I don’t have what I need. There’s a lot of MacGyvering going on, you know. You don’t have what you have when [00:08:00] you’re where I trained in residency.

We call that place the palace on ballast. Cause it was fancy at all the things, you know, even had a chef that made steaks.

Dr. Cindy: Oh, wow.

Dr. Buchanan: That’s how I trained. And then I come to this place and I’m like, well, you don’t have this. You don’t have this, and you don’t have that. So that’s what I was dealing with.

So, we’re working and working 80-hour weeks, really. And I remember one week I clocked a hundred and, I never got sick.

I never got COVID. You know, I can wear that like a badge of honor, but many of my colleagues got really sick. A good number of my colleagues, even though they were physicians, didn’t believe in COVID.

I’m not going into rooms, mask, nose out, and got really sick, one in the ICU, one ended up on oxygen. And so what happens? They call you and say, can you fill in? Can you fill in?

And quite frankly, I was afraid to be home. My son has Crohn’s and he’s on an immunosuppressant. We didn’t know how that worked then.

And I [00:09:00] was afraid that if I contacted him, breathed on him, I could kill my kid. Or, you know, give it to my other kid. My other son has asthma. We weren’t sure what happens there.

Dr. Cindy: Right.

Dr. Buchanan: So, the isolation, plus it looked like the apocalypse as you drive into work. It’s like something out of a movie. Maybe a bad car wreck every few months. You lose a patient every few months – like someone really unexpected.

You might lose an elderly person who’s been on a journey with cancer and, and you experience that differently than a mother. I really empathize with mothers who die, and their children are left without a mother.

As you know, it makes you think about your own family.

Dr. Cindy: Yeah.

Dr. Buchanan: And so, the death, I, it got to me, the loss and the feeling like I wasn’t able to help.

Usually I can figure something out, you know, we weren’t able to help and we didn’t know what to do. And all of a sudden, I started having nightmares and I felt like, [00:10:00] I felt like, why do I even do this? Why?

And then as I’m driving to work, I’m like, why do anything? And that’s when, you know, you [couldn’t] see it on yourself when it’s happening to you. I could diagnose it with my patient, but I came to work one day, and everyone was talking about one of our colleagues who committed suicide.

“Did you hear about…?” “No way.” Cause this guy was smart, great ER doctor. He was instrumental in my training. He had a beautiful wife and kids.

And, you know, and he posted it’s all gonna be okay on Facebook like a few days ago. So, it was shocking.

That’s when I knew I’m not okay. I need to get some help. My kids don’t deserve that because It’s so insidious.

You never know what you might do. So, that’s when I got some help and I realized how hard it is to get mental health help.

I mean, nobody took my insurance. I couldn’t find anybody. Of course, therapists are not working during COVID. And then I was afraid about losing my license because [00:11:00] you can’t make a multiple six figure salary and, you know, have children and a family and a mortgage.

And what if they take my license? So, I was afraid to get help.

I finally did because I was afraid more of dying. And therapy was like air, and I highly recommend it.

I did therapy and moreover, what helped me more than therapy was a coach. Because your therapist, she knew all the clinical things and helped me get on Wellbutrin and all of those things.

But the coach got me. She was like, um, uh, I know those, those, those long hour days and the ER shifts.

Like nobody gets a doctor, like a doctor gets a doctor and most people think we’re crazy, you know? And in a way we are. It is when, when you look back over your training and what you did to get here.

It is superhuman and quite toxic, to be honest.

And [00:12:00] so just my journey on getting healthy mentally, I’m so thankful for a sound mind.

It’s something we take for granted. And I’m thankful that I was able to keep my license.

And so, with that being said, I want to help other people do that. And um, that’s why I joined the Lorna Breen Foundation as an ambassador, because I just believe in that mission.

And it’s like, I don’t know why that’s not, you know some widespread idea that is ubiquitous in news and art and in media, but it’s just an undercurrent.

Like one doctor a day is committing suicide. Yeah. It’s a whole medical class.

Dr. Cindy: Right. And just briefly for those who may not be aware of the Lorna Breen Foundation, say what you do for them.

The Lorna Breen Foundation: Fighting Stigma and Supporting Physician Mental Wellness

Dr. Buchanan: I’m an ambassador, so that means I help spread the message. I will help sometimes in fundraising campaigns and, you know, speak and do those types of things. So, the Lorna Breen Foundation was made [00:13:00] after an ER physician during the pandemic, she committed suicide for all the reasons I just described.

You have no idea how taxing being a doctor is and the emotional distress that goes along with that and just personhood. So being a person in and of itself is hard but being the person that’s taxed with saving lives and healing, it adds another weight.

Dr. Cindy: Right. And part of that foundation, I understand, is to help physicians get over the stigma of reaching out for help and making it so that they don’t have to worry about losing their license and taking the checkbox off the list. Like, “Have you ever been treated for mental health illness?”

Dr. Buchanan: I am so thankful for that because that that you know, I think we’re at about half of the states now to where that’s taken off the checkbox, “Have you ever had a mental illness” because you know, listen.

I believe that the way that should go is if you have a psychiatrist and they [00:14:00] feel the need to report you, then they should. Because mental illness, come, everyone will have a bout of depression. It’s just, there’s nobody who gets past that. It’s just about most of the population.

I had to go get help under a pseudonym, and I paid cash. Because I was just so afraid.

Dr. Cindy: Yeah. That was my next question, which is what did you do to get… you said you were afraid of dying more than you were of losing your license. So that was your motivation, but how did you actually do it?

Dr. Buchanan: I went to see the therapist and I said, I don’t want this on my record. I just want to pay cash. And when I saw my primary care to get medication, I was like, do not put depression in my chart. It’s an adjustment disorder. I said, I can’t have that right now.

Dr. Cindy: Right, exactly. And that’s how you got out.

Dr. Buchanan: Yeah. And my doctor fully understood. She nodded. She’s like, Oh, sure.

Dr. Cindy: Yeah, and that still goes on today. I mean, it will. Oh, yeah. COVID wasn’t that long ago.

Dr. Buchanan: I know people act like [00:15:00] it was. It was literally yesterday, you know,

Dr. Cindy: Right in the grand scheme…

Dr. Buchanan: We don’t need to forget. I feel like we’re starting to forget.

And I’m like, yeah, that’s a dangerous place to be.

Dr. Cindy: It’s still fresh. And you wrote a powerful memoir, and it’s called White Coat, Black Face, How to Recover from Your Emotional Flatline.

Where does that fall in your timeline? When did you write that?

Neurodivergent Physicians: Embracing Differences and Overcoming Stigma

Dr. Buchanan: Oh, it comes out in April. So, it’s brand new, but it’s basically about kind of chronicles my TED talk.

The TED talk I did was about how I grew up neurodivergent. People were just calling it “not right” and “slow” in my community.

I grew up, you know, [in an] African American community. The African American community is slow to accept mental illness or any type of cognitive deficits, just anything that is abnormal and it’s stigmatized really heavily.

And I know that’s true of the general population, but even more so concentrated in the African American culture. [00:16:00] So people were very unkind. I remember being with my mother and people saying. “What’s wrong with her? Is she slow or something?”

And I heard that so many times that I thought, it felt like part of my identity until my mom had me go to places that I now know were therapeutic places and helped me speak better and function. And play to my strengths, which are, you know, math and science based STEM.

By the time I was in high school, I didn’t even feel like I had any issue and I was doing well in all subjects and was able to go to medical school.

I speak now a lot about that, especially in the African American community, get early intervention, get help.

Don’t ignore the issue. There is no shame in it.

And if everybody was the same, wouldn’t that be boring?

And I do realize now, as I’m less ashamed of that being part of my story. Many physicians have [00:17:00] neurodivergence and, you know, you watch shows like the Big Bang Theory and you see Sheldon Cooper, definitely neurodivergent, you know, and so I lean into it now.

And, my daughter helped me with that. Because one of my biggest fears is I don’t want to pass this to my kids. Well, you know, I did pass it to my children or my children do have it.

My one daughter that she does well in school, she’s on the Dean’s list and everything. And I was just telling her, I’m sorry you have to deal with, you know, it’s neurodivergence and all of this.

And she’s like, “Mom, I love my neuro spicy family.” And I was like, so they reframed it. I love the way the kids reframed and like, “Oh, I’m neuro spicy.” I sometimes get a listen of some of the music they listen to. And some of the rap songs have neuro spicy in it.

These kids are embracing it, not stigmatizing it. I love that for them.

Preventing Physician Burnout: Strategies for Sustainable Medical Careers

Dr. Cindy: Me too. I could not agree more. My, um, not [00:18:00] to get too personal on my kids, but yeah, we’ve had, you know, some neurodivergence. We’ve had reasons to run off to therapists and psychiatrists and I felt guilty because I feel like it’s genetic. But I so agree with you.

 The kids these days talk about everything, I’m sure there’s still a stigma with mental health, but man, they are just so open to talking about getting help and talking to therapists and asking for a therapist when they’re, you know, 16 years old, and I’m just so proud of them.

Dr. Buchanan: I think that is a positive change that’s going to permeate into our generation. And I do believe that it won’t be long before we can get all of the states to take that box off of the applications and the hospitals to take it off of their applications too.

Dr. Cindy: Exactly. So the Lorna Breen Foundation still needs help. It needs to recruit people to help get, make that happen.

Dr. Buchanan: It needs to recruit people and need funds always, you know, you can go to the website and donate.

We can’t afford for any more doctors to quit and we definitely can’t afford for doctors to commit suicide. [00:19:00] If you didn’t know, we’re in a crunch, we’re in a crisis, there’s a shortage.

And that’s why I feel like that’s my life mission right now. Like I’ve saved a lot of physical lives, but I need to save some physician lives right now.

I need to coach some through burnout. I need to let them know it’s okay to not be okay. Be a beacon of light of where you can go to get help. And make safe spaces for us to get help.

So, I’m in the infancy of just, you know, I do the coaching now, but I’m now realizing there needs to be community. So safe places where we can discuss and exchange ideas based on region and things of that nature. And I’m trying to do that in a thoughtful way, but that’s needed.

Dr. Cindy: How do women reach out to you? How do they find you if they want your help?

Dr. Buchanan: My website is drbstrong.com that’s d r b s t r o n g. com and you can request an appointment. You can sign up for my newsletter and I like to educate weekly [00:20:00] with the newsletter. And then, um, or, you know, I use textable where you can text the word “strong” to 55444 and then my assistant will reach out to you.

I’m trying to make it easy because I’m thinking about myself and so the person I’m helping is myself 10 years ago, you know, 15 years ago, and I wish I would have had something like this.

And so, that’s why I was like, and if you’re talking to me 15 years ago and my kids are five and well, they were a little, so they’re, they’re 16 now, but you talk to me in there and they’re, they’re little babies.

I don’t have time. I just finished at the hospital. And plus, I probably have to read and maybe I have a meeting and you want me to do something else, make it easy, let it be simple. And so that’s why I say, just text the word “strong” to 55444.

Dr. Cindy: I love that. And I’ll include that all in the show notes too.

Now, [00:21:00] there are a couple options when women are met with burnout, so they can either, you know. reach out and get help and stay in medicine, or they can just walk away altogether.

And I’ve heard some, you know, literally throw up their hands and say, “That’s it. I’m done.” And they walk away. So that’s a pretty important juncture there.

What would you say to that woman? Ready to throw up her hands.

Dr. Buchanan: Uh, I think it is a great American tragedy because here’s why, you know, and I make men went mad with this, but there are studies in JAMA, Journal of American Medical Association, that women physicians have better outcomes.

And this is tied to just communication. So generally speaking, we all know that women speak more words per day than men do. That’s been proven by science. And at the end of the day, patients need to be educated and need to understand.

I was taught in residency to explain to my patients as if they were two years old. And I [00:22:00] teach, when I’m teaching younger residents or nurse practitioners, I say, that’s how you explain the diagnosis.

You don’t go in and give a big word like pneumoconiosis. You don’t do that. Or if you do use that word, Then you explain what it means.

I so often see patients come to the ER. Wasting time and resources just because they didn’t understand discharge, instructions from a surgical procedure or hospitalization or a new a recent diagnosis that did not warrant an ER visit.

And so, then I, as the ER doctor ended up educating. But women leaving medicine is, is tragic. I think these hospital systems need to realize that it takes a long time to make a doctor. And so, you need to make some adjustments so we can keep all types of physicians on payrolls.

I know that hospitals have been completely inflexible.

I’ve known doctors who want to do something called practice share, where two physicians want to work one practice as part time, and hospitals will [00:23:00] say, no. I think that’s a mistake because it’s better to keep the doctors in practice in some capacity than not at all.

When a physician is considering quitting I like to work with them doing an exercise. I like to go through something, a tool, some colleagues of mine made called the purpose discovery.

It’s an assessment that goes through multiple data points and helps determine your purpose. And now you’re like, how is that possible? I thought the same thing until I did, I did it myself.

And when I figured out my purpose and then thought through and I was like, oh, yeah, that jives. And then I went down the path of working with my purpose and not against it. I was happier.

So that’s one of my favorite things to do is to take someone through a purpose discovery journey. And a lot of times. I’ve never had one of my clients not have an aha moment, just kind of really uncovering why you are the way you are and the kinds of [00:24:00] things you would be best suited to do.

So then it changes how you approach whatever it is you’re doing. And I think that many people think they want to quit medicine. But they don’t want to quit medicine. They probably want to quit the system. And there’s a way to be a doctor without dealing with the system.

There’s also a way of being a doctor that many women are not taking advantage of. We have been taught to be nice, to be demure, to just go with it.

But when you assert yourself and speak up, you’ll find that your hospital system probably has recognized that they need you really more than you need them and are willing to work with you and make concessions to make this journey be more of what you need.

Dr. Cindy: Right.

Dr. Buchanan: And so, I love to teach people to stand in their power.

Dr. Cindy: Hmm. Beautiful. So well summed up.

Dr. Buchanan: Thanks.

Dr. Cindy: I know we only have a couple of minutes left and gosh, I could talk to you all day.

Physician Empowerment: Community, Education, and Patient Advocacy

Dr. Buchanan: That’s what I found out [00:25:00] when I did purpose discovery. So, like I am, I’m excellent at being a physician, but, I kind of get into my zone of genius when it comes to teaching, speaking, and encouraging.

I noticed that in my practice, because when my patients have a specific thing, I’m better at encouraging, I don’t like to prescribe, I think we over prescribe, and I think a lot of times, if I can have a conversation, then this is probably part of my exhaustion and burnout. It’s because the hospital wants … you to see people fast, fast, fast, fast, fast, but I need to talk to you.

So, you know, keep coming back to the ER, and tell you, you know, this is what you do, and this is what happens. And yes, you’re going to have blood in your urine and that’s okay. If you see this much, then that’s bad and just really educate him or her.

And I think it saves dollars. Even though the hospital thinks time is what you need. We need you not bouncing back to the ER. Most people don’t need to see the doctor as much as they do. They know that you don’t need to access the system, it’s just everybody’s so anxious and [00:26:00] under educated about their own bodies

I think even from a basic premise of when I was a kid we had health classes I feel like people don’t know how to basically take care of themselves.

And so there’s a lot of education that needs to be had.

Dr. Cindy: Right. And you are a speaker, and I will actually put a link, to your Ted talk, which was phenomenal. You’re out there, you’re on platforms, you’re educating the public and working one on one with physician moms, as I understand.

Dr. Buchanan: Um, all physicians.

On LinkedIn, many female executives have been reaching out to me because that wasn’t my target audience. But I realized we have the same problems and, and so I work with physician executives as well.

I like to make, I do individual, but I like groups. I think there’s magic in groups because what happens is you get resources from your man, your woman next, next to you – “Oh, I didn’t know that resource existed,” or “Here’s a connection I want you to make. I think it’d be good for you.”  All while we’re doing community and healing and coaching and getting what you need, plus that allyship, I think is so important.

Dr. Cindy: Right. I think groups are amazing too.

And like you, you touched on community a couple of times, and that is so, so important. We are not alone.

Dr. Buchanan: You know, one thing the pandemic taught us, the isolationism, really hurts our psyche. Right. We need community. We need to be with people who support, who are allies, who understand, who get it.

And we need to be exposed to different people, like learning the different cultures and having empathy for their situations as well.

Dr. Cindy: Exactly.

Dr. Buchanan: Just being in community.

Navigating Microaggressions and Promoting Physician Wellness: Final Advice

Dr. Cindy: Any last words of wisdom for the audience

Dr. Buchanan: I am a big proponent of prevention.

I feel like you need to stay well so you don’t have to get well.

Especially, I feel like as we have such upheaval and [00:28:00] government and what they want to do, we need to focus on prevention. Focus on taking care of our bodies. And so, when you follow me on my newsletters, I like to speak to that and I want people to spread that to their families, friends.

To get on my newsletters, go to my website or text the word “strong” to 55444. I also like to send out things like for me as a black woman, I have to learn how to, what is it, gingerly navigate things like microaggressions.

I have this one thing I give out five ways to manage microaggressions. Doesn’t just apply to black women, but it applies to women in general.

I know I have been in a room, seen the patient, examined him, even did a rectal exam, and as I’m walking out, he’s going, so when is the doctor coming in? That kind of thing, you know, even in 2025 because that just happened a few months ago.

Dr. Cindy: I believe that.

Dr. Buchanan: Yeah, and it’s not uncommon.

Dr. Cindy: Well, I am so [00:29:00] grateful that you had the time to sit with me today. I’m so thankful.

I appreciate it. It was fun. I like doing this. Yeah. It’s like my favorite thing to do.

Dr. Cindy: Oh, awesome. Well, I’ll put all the links in the show notes and people can find you and listen to you and read your book, which is coming out.

Congratulations. That’s coming out in April.

Dr. Buchanan: Yes.

Dr. Cindy: Congratulations. Very nice. Thank you.

Dr. Buchanan: And thank you for having me.

Links for Dr. Buchanon:

Ted talk:

https://youtu.be/ctKPY7JAsIA?feature=shared

LinkedIn:

http://linkedin.com/in/pamela-buchanan-md-61ba5562

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/share/1Wu6sRhTsn/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/strongmedstl/profilecard/?igsh=MWJrYnQxaHh5eWxvdg==

Website:

Drbstrong.com

Episode Timeline:

00:00 Introduction and Warm Welcome

00:44 Journey into Medicine

02:41 Challenges in Emergency Medicine

03:11 Impact of the Pandemic

05:56 Burnout and Mental Health Struggles

12:14 Finding Support and Advocacy

20:59 Advice for Physicians Facing Burnout

27:45 Final Thoughts and Resources