Leading New Ventures:
Building a Creative Career Alongside Medicine

Transforming Healthcare Coaching Podcast — Episode 85: Art and Medicine: Finding Balance with Dr. Trisha Patel. Host: Lillian Liang Emlet, MD MS CHSE CPC ELI-MP. Guest: Trisha Patel, PharmD.

Lillian Liang Emlet: So we are so excited to have on our show today, Dr. Tricia Patel, who is a critical care pharmacist. And so obviously I have a very soft spot in my heart for critical care pharmacists because on rounds they are like the final word to crosscheck all the errors that we might have made. And she's also an educator, just myself and Klaus.

We love to teach. And so she's a pharmacy residency director outside of Philadelphia. But more importantly the reason why we have her on the Transforming Healthcare Coaching podcast today is that she's also an artist, entrepreneur, business owner, mom. So many things. And so here we'd like you to think about how you can expand and tap into the things that you love. And we're just gonna talk a little bit about her journey, and hopefully you can find some inspiration through that. So thank you so much for being on the show today, Tricia.

Trisha Patel: Thank you so much for having me. It is, it is truly an honor.

Lillian Liang Emlet: Yeah. I'm wondering, could you take us back to a moment when you first felt the pull towards something different beyond clinical practice? Just how did you even get the idea that there's something more. Then just, your a hundred percent full-time job, which I just wanna acknowledge to everyone that you are still working clinically full-time and have a full academic career.

What made you pull towards your art side of things?

Trisha Patel: Yeah. Yeah. Thank you so much. So to, to be honest, I have been an artist my whole life and I am self-taught and, didn't have that opportunity to have any formal education within art. So I dabbled in any creative opportunity that I had since I was younger. But I think, for so long it was ingrained in me that.

Art would be something I do after I retire. And so it was really just pushed off for a very long time. But it wasn't until I actually had my daughter and at the time my son was only five, that it really did sort of hit me and I think I realized the preciousness of time and how quickly time was moving and really there was no reason for me to wait.

In the midst of, , after having my daughter, I started discovering I think a little bit more about the art roles. I started becoming more intrigued and. I, I'll kinda share a little bit about my story of why I even like sort of took that jump, but I picked up a rifle paper company notebook one day and I asked myself, why can I not make the art on products that I love seeing and that I'm buying?

Like, why is that something that I can't do? So it got me kind of taking the next step of scouring the internet, figuring out like, how do you do this? And I discovered somebody by the name of Bonnie Christine, she's pretty much a lead in the. I mean worldwide known lead in service, pattern design.

And I think my heart was set. It took me off at that point to know that like, okay, this is my path to doing something that I love. And after hearing her story about how successful you could be as an artist, that to me was very foreign. I think, again, like I said, it was really ingrained into me when I was younger.

Being an artist is the Spartan artist and you really can't have a successful career in it. You really can't, financially be stable in it. Until I kind of heard her story and she really had done it, from start to finish, having that time and freedom of space and creativity and financial support for her family, and time for her family.

So that really took me off , and I, I, at that point just worked in the margins of my life. I took her 12 week course and I did it. Of course amidst, you know, having a new child and working full time and that would've been courses in the car, you know, while doing laundry. It's just, you know, whatever had the time I could kind of fit in.

I took that course and I put it to practice. And you know, honestly after that year I had my first win of like licensing my art with a company for fabric. And it was just, it kinda just spiraled from there, you know, it was really motivational and, it gave me that, I think reassurance that like, I can do this.

I just, I really, it's gonna take a lot of effort and time. But yeah, I think that turning point was my children and I realized, you know, there's no. Reason to wait to do something creative that was going to fuel my passion. And then also be able to hopefully show to them even when they get older and now that you don't need to suppress some of those, you know, deeper passions.

Just because you have another competing career and you can essentially still do both. It is difficult, but it is possible.

Lillian Liang Emlet: I love it. There's so many things to unpack in there because obviously I too am also the part of the both and in life, and then more is better. I do love the fact that, the tipping point is just realizing that time is passing even as. It's there and so why not? And why not you?

So I think what's really beautiful about the story is that what we're hoping with this episode to show other people in healthcare is that you're paying it forward now like it was hook somebody else. That representation does matter. That you see that there is something different in the narrative, that everyone's journey and story is worth sharing.

Because when you see yourself in that, then you wonder whether you can be that spark as well.

Trisha Patel: Yes, absolutely.

Lillian Liang Emlet: I also think, in your story that there is clearly something about when you love it or when you're super curious about it, it just consumes you, right? You squeeze it in when you can.

And this myth and this narrative that most women, many women often say is I don't have the time and I'm too tired. It just means you may not want it enough. The

Trisha Patel: Right, exactly. And I think the way we use our time, which is was something that I've discovered even just recently listening to another podcast is that we do have time. It's just the way that you use it and the way that you choose to use your time. And really I think there was a fire lit in my soul and I.

After I knew it was possible, it was just like, there's really nothing stopping me. So,

Yeah, and coming from a family of entrepreneurs, I just, you know, I feel like I kind of have maybe that motivation already as a foundation that I never really knew. And it was like I just, I needed to care it for it, so.

Lillian Liang Emlet: And I think the

Trisha Patel: Mm-hmm.

Lillian Liang Emlet: thing too is to also, for all of us to trust the universe to some degree, right? That

Trisha Patel: Yeah. Yeah.

Lillian Liang Emlet: to happen, right? So

Trisha Patel: Great.

Lillian Liang Emlet: caused the spark to, to. Cause you to go back to school, just like I went back to school to become a coach and then eventually figure out what's the next step?

Will become the next step. And know that the things will evolve as it needs to evolve. And if things need to pause, things need to pause. And that's also

Trisha Patel: Yeah. Right.

Lillian Liang Emlet: Yeah.

Trisha Patel: Absolutely.

Lillian Liang Emlet: And so I'm wondering, you're not giving up anything about academic medicine and keeping on with critical care and being a

Trisha Patel: Yeah.

Lillian Liang Emlet: and you also opened a full on art studio and shop.

Am I correct in that?

Trisha Patel: Yeah, so my art studio is just the space that I work in, but my online shop is, yeah, it's online to sell my products and, you know, do the whole nine yards of marketing and all the things that we need to do to, to keep our shop going. So, yeah.

Lillian Liang Emlet: Yeah. So how do

Trisha Patel: Mm-hmm.

Lillian Liang Emlet: with the differences in, 'cause it's hard to balance the time and the. Product and the seasons of a business, the quarters, and also the academic year, which also has its own rhythm and also

Trisha Patel: Right.

Lillian Liang Emlet: life. So

Trisha Patel: Yeah.

Lillian Liang Emlet: in school and things like that. How do you balance all of those different patterns in the seasons of what your time looks like in order to juggle it all?

Trisha Patel: Yeah. I can't say that I have a perfect schedule and that I've completely figured it out yet. It's been a learning process. I will say that I think there was certainly a time when I felt like I needed to keep all the balls in the air. I needed to be doing all the things and you know, if I could go back, I would do things completely differently.

But. You know, early on I just tried to do too many things at once, and I think, I'll be very honest, it led to burnout. It led to many of the things that you would expect to happen if you're doing, trying to run a business and have children and, you know be present for everything. But. I kind of keep falling back on sort of my values and my why, of why I started this.

You know, knowing and honoring my limits prioritizing the things that are important to me, like my family. So just kind of. Reiterating to myself and reminding myself that, okay, what is the priorities in my life? And accepting that I may not be able to do all the things. And that's been a hard, I think, lesson to learn along the way.

Like I said, I didn't do it perfectly then. I'm probably not doing it perfectly now, but I've just gotten better at it. So it's taken a lot to, build in the moments in my life where I think I can have the space to do be creative and then saying, okay, you know what? This week I plan to do all these things for my business.

It's not gonna work this week. And I have to be okay with that, and I have to let things go. And that has allowed me to keep moving forward. It's also trying to refocus my attention, not trying to do all the things but be. Really become sort of an expert at one thing, move on to the next thing, try to re you know, obviously like refine my skills in something else within the art or within the business.

And that has helped grounded me a little bit and allowed me to keep a little bit more balance without getting the burnout. But you know, I think that self-reflection is just very important and. I, I try to separate, make those separations, you know, when I'm going and leaving for work. Okay. I'm focused on work, you know what I mean?

I'm focused on my residents and the program and my patients. And when I come home, my immediate focus is my children. You know, it's getting them situated with things that they need and then guests in the late, in the late eight hours of the night and early in the morning is when I may be focusing on my business.

So I think it's just having that separation of time as well has helped me kind of. Be able to juggle it and at least get this far. I do feel that also my progress has been very slow and it's hard to accept that seeing the other artists and social media is just so tough. You know, it's like seeing the progress of others is really, can be very daunting.

But knowing that my progress can only be this fast because of all the things that I'm doing, and again, it's just. Trying to come to that acceptance. And knowing that I'm still moving forward. I just may not be moving at the pace that I want to. But I am still offering myself and serving others in many different ways, whether it's through my art or through my patients, and I have to, and I'm, I'm obviously very grateful for that.

So, yeah.

Lillian Liang Emlet: So I wanted to emphasize two important lessons, in your story. One being the fact that you can burn out as a high achieving loving too much, because I think that was also

Trisha Patel: Yes.

Lillian Liang Emlet: burnout as well, is just when you do too many things and you love them all, you can't imagine not doing all of them.

And these are, this is. It's the tendency of high performance burnout. Most of the news in the media ca catches healthcare professionals talking about burnout is an external factor about the lack of autonomy in the healthcare system. it's also to some degree our personality type in terms of what we would like to achieve.

And you also teach us another really important lesson that is also wanna emphasize for our audience is the fact that mindful transitions and focus and when mindfulness is really not about having no thought, mindfulness is actually about focus. And when you're able to

Trisha Patel: Yeah.

Lillian Liang Emlet: And

Trisha Patel: Yes.

Lillian Liang Emlet: to your values, in that moment, you can

Trisha Patel: Mm-hmm.

Lillian Liang Emlet: to deliver, be fully

Trisha Patel: Mm-hmm.

Lillian Liang Emlet: A peace of mind in that you're.

Present with teaching, present with patient care and present for children, present for art. And so

Trisha Patel: Yeah.

Lillian Liang Emlet: having that wisdom to know that and to refine that muscle. And so I think that's, I think another thing that most people don't really recognize that they give up on mindfulness too quickly, or they give up on the system too easily themselves rather than you've already explained.

Trisha Patel: Mm-hmm.

Lillian Liang Emlet: to give yourself grace and that your journey is gonna be your journey, and you can't really compare to other people.

Trisha Patel: Oh, absolutely. And it's really hard to not, you know, compare yourself 'cause there's just so much out there. And the success is, is obviously very loud on, you know, in social media. But I'll, I'll kind of share one other piece too, that I, I recently decided to get a business coach 'cause I was like, you know, I'm very lost.

I'm all over the place. I need to help, have some help with focusing.

Lillian Liang Emlet: All right.

Trisha Patel: And you know, I think going into it. The intention was, oh, I need to get all the answers of what I should be doing. But really what came out of our entire session, you know, from being with Epic episode coach was, Tricia, you need. A mindset change.

It was all about, you really need to just focus on your mindset and you need to focus on creating. It doesn't need to be, how many posts can you make a week, week on social media? How much, how many sales did you make this week? Or, you know what I mean? It's, and that, and that obviously becomes a part of your, your business, especially as an artist.

And so it was really, it was very big eyeopener to say that. I think you just need to focus on your mindset and being confident about yourself, about your work being, you know what I mean? Loving your work and then creating more work that you love and that in itself will just bring you the success that you're looking for.

And it was a lot to hear. I think it's like hard to hear that 'cause you're looking for all of the quick answers to. To reach success. But it has really changed my mindset and that is what I've been doing. I've decided that I need to just create more and I decided to let go of a lot of things in my business.

You know, I'm kind of in the middle of this year after moving and it's been good. So,

Lillian Liang Emlet: Yeah, no, that's a really important lesson and so I appreciate your sharing that with our audience because it's probably the most important lesson in life that us as coaches, we really can't explain this to you. You

Trisha Patel: yeah.

Lillian Liang Emlet: it in realizing that so much of what we perceive is ex the world and the external factors. forget that the way that the world's experience is through our own personal brain and our own personal glasses, that

Trisha Patel: right.

Lillian Liang Emlet: our own personal, unique culture, spirituality, history, lived

Trisha Patel: Mm-hmm.

Lillian Liang Emlet: that mindset is a,

Trisha Patel: Yeah.

Lillian Liang Emlet: the best is. And the problem is we often let other people tell us what it needs to be or what it could be when instead the power is actually within us.

And it often just takes us as a coach

Trisha Patel: Mm-hmm.

Lillian Liang Emlet: to show you, you have all the power inside.

Trisha Patel: Yeah, definitely.

Lillian Liang Emlet: So

Trisha Patel: Absolutely.

Lillian Liang Emlet: then how have your lessons from this the deep life lessons of entrepreneurship of being an artist informed your leadership in the healthcare sector? Because I do think there probably are some analogies and

Trisha Patel: Yeah.

Lillian Liang Emlet: now that you have five years later, building your business that you bring to all of the experience now for both being a clinician and an educator, what leadership lessons

Trisha Patel: Yeah.

Lillian Liang Emlet: share with our audience?

Yeah. So what has, being an entrepreneur and an artist, how has that informed your life as a clinician, a pharmacist, a educator? Back in our medical world.

Trisha Patel: Yeah. So I think there's a lot of, there really is sort of a, a cross in my paths, you know, with what I'm learning as an artist and becoming an entrepreneur and also being a leader now within, you know, the clinical setting. And just having been a residency director only these past four years has taught me a lot.

But I think on many of these skills and the strengths that you need to be an entrepreneur is very much the same as being a leader, even in a clinical setting, believe it or not, even though that both are very, very, very different. It is. It is learning how to serve and lead, not just others in a. I don't have, I don't have any, like anybody, but working for me in my business, it is solely me and myself, you know, so I am my own leader within my, you know, in my own practice with Art Studio.

But within the residency program, obviously I am leading a team of pharmacists and preceptors and creating programs and en ensuring that we are providing the best training for our residents and best environment for them to learn. That takes a lot of just resilience and perseverance and, you know, collaborative practice and communication.

Similarly within my, I think my art practice, I also have to learn how to be resilient and really practice intentionality. Practicing intentional living is something that must be done, I think with, even within the healthcare setting. We have to know and recognize when we need to take a step back, when we need to focus on ourselves and say that we cannot do all the things today.

All these patients need help and we are only one person to be able to offer. You know, and provide the services that we need to. Similarly, I think within my own art business, I've had to come again to that realization that I am only one person and I have to prioritize the most important things right now for me.

And you know, when I step outta the hospital, it's my family. So. If I can't do that extra thing for my business today, it's okay and it's not gonna happen. And very similarly for, you know, the hospital, I have to be okay that I was not able to touch all the patients that I needed to today to offer my services.

So yeah, I think, I think there's many things that are sort of crossing for me between both from a leadership standpoint and I think it all kind of boils down to being your own leader so much than being a leader for others. But hopefully by. By that modeling and through that example, you know what I mean?

Everybody can see that leadership is far beyond just, you know, leading a team of people. It's also leading, you know, being your own leader for yourself.

Lillian Liang Emlet: Yes, and so I would say it that really an important lesson, what you're talking about, how the things that we do in healthcare and the ability to triage what's most important and drill things down into a very small, just what is the most important right now is part of what's resiliency for your business and vice versa.

And to be able to be willing to be able to grow from all of these little baby steps. I would say probably All the small things that you do little by little become big things in both the

Trisha Patel: Yeah.

Lillian Liang Emlet: your teams,

Trisha Patel: Absolutely.

Lillian Liang Emlet: And so it's just having that awareness, that mindful

Trisha Patel: Mm-hmm.

Lillian Liang Emlet: They cross populate your definition of leadership for yourself

Trisha Patel: Mm-hmm.

Lillian Liang Emlet: and your different careers.

Trisha Patel: Yeah.

Lillian Liang Emlet: And so I'm wondering, how what, how do you help keep things sustainable and aligned? Because actually that's something I'm trying to work on myself. Because the pace of what needs to happen to grow business to grow opportunities and academics, like endless. It's so much, and it

Trisha Patel: Yeah.

Lillian Liang Emlet: so many things you could be doing, and yet

Trisha Patel: Yeah.

Lillian Liang Emlet: recognize that we have to focus on one thing.

So how do we keep it sustainable?

Trisha Patel: Yeah. And yeah, I'm trying to keep those sustainable, right? So it's there's so many things that we can aspire to be in our healthcare careers, more things that we could be doing. I think especially like for me personally, you know, in the state of what my sort of department is right now at my hospital and just, you know, we have a lot of.

There's a lot of, you know, we we're kind of short staffed. You know, when you go through those like really low phases of, of the seasons where you don't have a lot of staff, everybody feels like they're spread very thin. Again, I think we have to fall back on what can we do and what are our limitations, and accepting that we have limitations and we cannot do all the things that maybe we did.

Five months ago when we were fully staffed, but it doesn't mean that we can't deliver good patient care. So, you know, very similarly in my business, I have to fall back on my why. You know, and why am I doing this so that I can keep reminding myself that, okay, I'm doing this for my family. So if it means having more time with them, then perhaps

it's a little less time for my business and it's just more time for them in doing something that's completely unrelated. You know, if my why is my family, then that is my priority. And if my why for my healthcare, you know, is the patients, then again that is my priority and we take a step back from doing extra work that maybe perhaps we would love to have done if, whether it's more education that we're providing to the department, you know, education to our, to our residents, you know, creating more activities for our residents, whatever that may extra thing that is, that we hope to be able to achieve.

We have to determine that there's a later time for it, you know, that might be better. Where we can actually be more intentional, you know, to carry that forward and carry it out. So, you know, one of the big ethos of my brand that I have really developed and my mission of my brand that I've developed now over the past couple years is to promote intentional living through my art.

And. If I'm not able to practice those values, then I'm not gonna be able to accomplish helping others do the same. So I try to remind myself of that, you know, I have to really be practicing my own values and that's how I kind of, I think, stay grounded in my business. And, you know, also within, I guess, healthcare.

Lillian Liang Emlet: Yeah, I love that. I think we

Trisha Patel: Yeah.

Lillian Liang Emlet: our why. When I do workshops for healthcare professionals. It's really hard for them to do the questions, to unpack it. Even when I had my own coach, it took me months to figure out what are my values? What? What is my why? Because once you're

Trisha Patel: Yeah.

Lillian Liang Emlet: mid-career in practice, you're just doing the day to day.

You don't really think about. Who you are or how you want to show up, or really what's important, you're just doing what you know, what you're supposed to do rather than the intention. And so I think the intention is everything. And so I'm curious with your art how do you merge that with your pieces for the intention and how do you help people see and feel that with, as you create different pieces?

Trisha Patel: Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for asking. 'cause that's like the, I think what really keeps me going with my, with my business. So I have been a huge, just, I just have a very deep appreciation for nature and for nature's symbolism. Many people are not aware of it or not familiar with it. Some people have referred to it as nature's language.

But there is a historical context to that. So, you know, historically there's a lot of. Symbolism within the flowers and within nature that has been brought out and it's just been carried forward. You know, over time some people are aware of it, you know, kind of come to know a little bit about it.

But I have made that really, truly the foundation of my art. So all of the pieces that I make actually carry that symbolism in them, that becomes the storytelling of my pieces. And. My intention and my mission is to not just create a piece of art that's gonna hang on your wall as home decor. We can buy that off of Amazon if we wanted to.

You know, that's, that's something that you can easily get wherever you like, you know, if you needed to. But it's buying a piece of art that is gonna tell your story in your home. And even. Not knowing this, but I discovered this actually just this year, that interior design trends are actually moving towards wellness inspired design.

And that means creating spaces within our home that truly, you know, support our values and our meaningful spaces that are telling our story. And that's exactly what I want and hope to accomplish. I want somebody to pick up a piece you know, from my shop or an original that I painted, knowing the symbolism that I incorporated into that.

Again, stemming from historical meanings for the flowers and just connect with it. Maybe it reminds them of a time in their life that they went through an obstacle, something that they overcame. And just be able to have that as a heirloom, pass it on, you know, along generations to say, look, that was a piece that represented something that I had to overcome in my life.

And that was actually the last collection that I just released was nine pieces and. I actually pooled people that some were strangers, some people I knew and asked them, I said, openly, pick a piece that you think that you connect with. And they all were able to tell their own story with one of the pieces.

And that's how I kind of shared it, because I think creating art is not to share my story. You don't need my story on your wall. You need your story. So. I do think that there is a deeper value to having art in our home, and I just, I hope to achieve that through nature symbolism. But that is really sort of the basis of the art that you're gonna see coming out.

You know, if I, I have more art in the future, it will always be tied to some form of inspiration or some way to provide you with further support than just visual beauty. So.

Lillian Liang Emlet: I love that. Yeah, because all of your pieces have a story behind it, and a lot of times we don't even know, like you said, we often have no idea why it resonates for you. And so for whatever reason you might resonate with the story, you might resonate with the beauty of what your interpretation of is, of it.

You. But you just might resonate with that particular flower. It might be your favorite flower. And so I do love how you comment that art is really about how you experience it. Just like life is everyone's own unique experience. That's the actual where the beauty is. And it's a gift that you are able to be able to provide that, to be able to ground the salt.

I do think that nature is very grounding and we. Almost every single person I am is there. There's probably zero humans out there who basically say that no, going out and taking a walk in nature is not restorative in some way.

Trisha Patel: Right,

Lillian Liang Emlet: so it's

Trisha Patel: right.

Lillian Liang Emlet: to be able to have a piece of that, in your in your house, in your journals, in your decor.

Trisha Patel: Yeah, absolutely.

Lillian Liang Emlet: I actually came to know you is because of a colleague of mine gifted me one of your pieces as a journal, and I love journals.

Trisha Patel: yeah.

Lillian Liang Emlet: and so that's actually how I came to know your art. And so it has special meaning when I realized the meaning behind it's when I went to your website, you opened the book you use the journal, but then you're like, huh, and then let me investigate a little bit.

And I do think that it's interesting how even art could just be the production of the beauty. Yours has a double, like a double layer almost in terms of there's also the story behind it or the meaning behind it

Trisha Patel: Yeah.

Lillian Liang Emlet: you then share so that people can interpret it in their way and make it meaningful.

Trisha Patel: Absolutely. Yeah.

Lillian Liang Emlet: And to be able to create art like that, to be able to have value centered, intention centered creativity, what keeps you grounded? Because I think a lot of times people in healthcare often don't feel very grounded at all. So what practices, beliefs, what things do you do to help bring yourself back to that intention?

Trisha Patel: Yeah. So I, I think it's kind of probably some of the things that I've kind of reiterated about. Just remembering my why of why do I want to create, you know, and not trying to. Let myself go to the other spectrum of saying, okay, I can't be successful as an artist. That's a huge myth that's out there.

And I think in this, I think in this day and age right now, like artists have such a huge opportunity to be able to show, you know, their talents. And it's incredible. I mean, there's just so many opportunities now, and I think I'm, I'm grateful for that and being able to live in this, in this kind of era right now of, of creating art and being successful.

But, again, I, I just, I always fall back on my why and it was okay, this is a deep passion of mine. I had pushed it aside for so many years thinking that I had to wait, and I think it's just like that underlying maybe that you need to create this identity for yourself as being a successful healthcare, or not just healthcare, but just, you know, being a successful profession that is defined by maybe financial success.

You know, and you cannot do the things that are maybe creative because they're not gonna be as. As maybe you know, I think I don't know, like they're not gonna guarantee I think, a success in the same way that maybe a profession such as pharmacy would, right. But I have realized that every time I am not painting or I'm not doing something creative, at least one time in my week, it is not a good week.

It really is just, you know what I mean? It just, it's a, it's something that supports me and my wellbeing and my mental health, and I have to. Recognize that that, okay, it is okay to be able to create and to be able to carve out time for something that I love, even if it may not be bringing in extra, you know, the extra money or financially, you know, the gain that I'm potentially getting, you know, from my other profession.

So. I, I really try to not try to convince myself or that I need to feel guilty about creating, you know what I mean? And I think it's just been a long time of having to accept that it is okay to create because this is helping me and my wellbeing and it's something that I need to be a better person.

So yeah, I, I, I think that's probably, you know, my biggest, my biggest way to stay grounded in continuing to do the work that I do.

Lillian Liang Emlet: Yeah, no, I totally agree. Like I, I fell off, I've been trying to do a writing challenge and the creativity is really important

Trisha Patel: Yeah.

Lillian Liang Emlet: a,

Trisha Patel: Yeah.

Lillian Liang Emlet: also another value that you didn't realize that you had for so long. We went the traditional route in terms of. Practicing in healthcare it, you don't feel creative necessarily because you're following protocols and evidence-based medicine and like just the way

Trisha Patel: Yeah.

Lillian Liang Emlet: to do things.

It doesn't feel like there's much ability to just freeform things and just

Trisha Patel: Right.

Lillian Liang Emlet: ideas. And so whether it's. Via music, or whether it's painting or whether it's with the written word, being

Trisha Patel: Mm-hmm.

Lillian Liang Emlet: something creative. Even this, the podcast right, is part of my

Trisha Patel: Yeah.

Lillian Liang Emlet: to be able to bring people of interesting perspectives and thoughts into the space to expand people's minds. This is all fun and creative, and it's funny that it took us, what, 30 years after nurturing these skills when we were children and the importance of play and learning and to nurture the whole brain. I do think your lesson is really important for all healthcare professionals because if you feel like you've lost it, you need to go out there and just start trying and go back to school on your own.

Trisha Patel: Yeah.

Lillian Liang Emlet: dabbling where the stakes are low because,

Trisha Patel: absolutely.

Lillian Liang Emlet: Because it'll inject so much life and love back into yourself again.

Trisha Patel: Oh, definitely. And you know, if that's like the biggest takeaway from everybody here is I, I would just tell you, just, just do it. Do not hesitate. Don't continue to wait and hold off and give yourself excuses for not being creative. I have so many friends that I've met and they're just like, you know, well, I don't have the time right now.

I can do it at some point in my life. And I'm like, well, why don't you just do it now? Like, I didn't wait. And it is possible to do it. You know, it, it is typical. It's not gonna be easy. But it is possible. And I think once you just get started, you kind of just realize that it was something that you always needed.

And, you know, I. Also on the side of just wellbeing. As a residency director, you know, when I started in that position, I made it very clear, I think to everybody, you know, the whole team, my managers, that, one of that, my priority was the wellbeing of my, our residents. Their mental health was extremely gonna, that was gonna be what I put as a priority in the way that we sort of function as a team to create a residency program that's gonna support them.

You know, it's not just about the learning, it's also making sure that they're. Being supported along the way and coming out of the residency program, not broken or burnt out and not ready to take on, you know, being a strong clinician, clinical pharmacist. So you know, in that, in that, and I think that stems a lot from my history.

You know, I think anybody who is hearing me now and may have gone through pharmacy residency 10 plus years ago, wellbeing was not spoken of. It was not prioritized. There was. You know, it, it was just, it was a very hard time to go through residency programs and it really kind of, I think, put people in a place where they felt like, okay, well this is unfortunately just healthcare and I.

I made it a point that this would not be what my residents ever experienced. You know, with the experience that I had to go through as, as, as a resident. So in that, you know, I just, I feel like if I'm going to put my heart and soul into making sure that their wellbeing is taken care of, I also need to remind myself to do the same for myself.

And that, you know, can happen outside of work even.

Lillian Liang Emlet: Yeah.

Trisha Patel: so

Lillian Liang Emlet: by role modeling, I'm also curious,

Trisha Patel: yeah.

Lillian Liang Emlet: do you do with your residency program to help promote wellbeing for the younger generation?

Trisha Patel: Yeah, thanks for asking. We've put a lot of time and effort into sort of planning this out, you know, throughout the year and always trying to look for new ideas. But one thing is a lot of support along the way with one, having multiple advisors and preceptors helping them with. Pretty much every project that they're touching, anything that they're working on, they have somebody to support them through those steps.

So from the very beginning, you know, whether it's during orientation. They've got their own preceptors that are devoted to them, their own advisors that are assigned to them to be able, somebody to go to for assistance, for help, for talking things through, you know, obviously they have me, but there's that extra person, right?

If they are given their big research project for the year, you have two preceptors assigned to you to be able to help you through that. You're not flying solo trying to figure it out. There's things that we do, activities throughout the year we may do this year, like we've started outreach programs because we're like.

You have to learn how to be a pharmacist in a hospital, but you also have to learn how to serve your community in a different way that can make you feel uplifted. So we've incorporated that as you know, we're gonna get you out in the community, we're gonna help you be able to help patients and see that, you know, very.

Immediate satisfaction of helping somebody, you know, that you may not always get in the hospital. Right. So things like that. We celebrate them throughout the year to celebrate their accomplishments. You know, I mean, they're working extremely hard. We are very careful about the hours that they're working.

So we're making sure that they're not doing a late shift and turning around early in the morning, like making sure that they're getting enough rest. Little things here and there, giving 'em project days to be able to get caught up, you know, in the middle of rotations, having half days at the end to be like, I make it a point every, the last day of your rotation, you have to leave the hospital at 12 o'clock and you need to go do something for yourself.

It is not going back to the office of working. It's going and take a walk outside. Go get lunch with your co-resident. Do something for yourself. And so really just trying to make sure that they're incorporating like wellness activities. And we just have so many touch points throughout the year to ensure that like.

They are doing okay. That's probably more so than they want, but very important to keep asking the question. And I think it's what was never done for us as residents. So I'm just making sure the things that I, I think that were gaps for me as a resident are never gaps that they ever have to experience.

And so one of the things I think that we hear very frequently from like any students that are, you know, interviewing for our residency program every year is that they have heard about the wellness. That we support in our residency program. And I am so proud that that is the message that is getting out there about our program because these are students we have never interacted with, but they are picking up on this being a priority of my residency program.

And I am so proud of it that all of our preceptors have supported it and stood behind it as the message of our program. And yeah, it's getting out there now. So yeah, it makes me very proud.

Lillian Liang Emlet: is really amazing. So lemme just say, so the reason why I created transforming healthcare coaching is because I really feel like a true measure of a leadership is wellbeing. And if you

Trisha Patel: Yeah.

Lillian Liang Emlet: do a report card, that probably right there is probably the best report card you could ever have.

Is that in the interview and the market to be like, should I go to this training program if people already know, I wanna apply because I'm curious how can you do things differently in a more well and sustainable way? It's through, through your, through your leadership of the entire group of that culture being permeated that you all agree that's a very important value that you bring.

Your whole person is not just, this is not transactional job. This is a whole person. Training

Trisha Patel: Mm-hmm.

Lillian Liang Emlet: where we need to support you completely, which means it's a team of advisors, not just one or two people. And it's

Trisha Patel: Right.

Lillian Liang Emlet: talk about. It's okay to keep asking and I think you have really important lessons that most wellness officers and wellness leaders, fully aware of that. We have to keep asking the question, keep checking in because most of us don't really ever wanna admit that things really aren't really some that great. It's really actually quite stressful. And if you don't keep

Trisha Patel: absolutely. Mm-hmm.

Lillian Liang Emlet: ever start the conversation. We just

Trisha Patel: Yeah.

Lillian Liang Emlet: on the other things on the computer and just keep on getting work done when the reality is what we need to have right now is just a conversation to know that you're not alone.

Trisha Patel: Yeah. And I think open communication is so hard sometimes, especially for residents. It is really hard to confront and, you know, others that are above you, like preceptors or be very transparent with some of like the feedback you wanna give. And it's hard. It's a, it's a, it's a skill that you have to learn how to do in this profession is to be able to give feedback and receive feedback.

And. I think open communication and emphasizing that we are here to help you and you should not hold back, you know, with things that are bothering you. Has been just reemphasized in my program multiple times that I, I am seeing that shift. I'm seeing our residents being able to speak up and whether it may be with a single person or, you know, in front of a group of people, whatever the comfort, you know, that they're comfortable with.

Just being able to take that step and say, okay, I am comfortable speaking to you is far different than the culture that it had been years ago. I think for us, you know, and I have always ingrained in everybody that we will not implement activities and requirements within this program unless they have a purpose.

It is not to provide busy work. It is not to make us feel like we are a more robust program by making 'em do things that does not. You know, support their learning, essentially. And I think that's kind of how times have been, you know, just do more and pile on more to the, you know, to make it feel like you have a really robust program, but it's really like, no, you're just gonna, you're just gonna burn 'em out and it's not going to really further their learning and their training.

So, yeah. Mm-hmm.

Lillian Liang Emlet: Yeah, and it's really also just acknowledge that academic pharmacy careers are just like academic medicine or academic nursing careers.

Trisha Patel: Yes.

Lillian Liang Emlet: very full. There's a lot of productivity metrics and it's,

Trisha Patel: Yeah.

Lillian Liang Emlet: always just like in the business where you feel like you're never not doing enough.

And so it's and we'd also don't wanna lose people to not stay in

Trisha Patel: Right.

Lillian Liang Emlet: And so it's,

Trisha Patel: Oh yeah.

Lillian Liang Emlet: yeah it's one of those things you wanna be able

Trisha Patel: Yeah.

Lillian Liang Emlet: Show them that it's sustainable. And so I think it's really a testament for how your values and ex lived experiences in both. They cross populate each other.

The fact that, the entrepreneurship the resilience, the why, the grounding, the values, the intention, all marry together to be able to help cross feed the growth in as a testament to your leadership.

Trisha Patel: Yeah,

Lillian Liang Emlet: Yeah,

Trisha Patel: absolutely.

Lillian Liang Emlet: it has been an amazing conversation and I've been really very inspired and I

Trisha Patel: Thank you.

Lillian Liang Emlet: this

Trisha Patel: you so much.

Lillian Liang Emlet: I do just say one little fun question if you're

Trisha Patel: Okay.

Lillian Liang Emlet: Which is the bonus question is what are you reading or listening to or learning

Trisha Patel: Yeah.

Lillian Liang Emlet: shaping, current, currently, like what you're thinking about leadership and creativity?

Trisha Patel: Yeah. Thank you. So aside from your podcast, which I, I kinda mentioned earlier to you is that I, I actually listened to a couple of your episodes and they're fantastic. So much ability to relate there, you know to the things that you're talking about within healthcare. But I've also tried to listen to podcasts that are helpful for my mindset.

So. Jim Thornton, his podcast, I think maybe many of them know Yes. About like, really kind of just transforming yourself from the inside out. It's, it's an amazing podcast. It is, you know, to address different ways to look at your energy how you put out energy into the universe and how you receive it, you know, about your mindset around money.

It is fantastic. So that has really, really helped me. From just, I think a wellness standpoint, and then from a creativity standpoint, I am definitely making this shift into really just going back to painting. I started that earlier this year in January. You know, I have been working on obviously a lot of the surface pattern, you know, and licensing patterns and artwork in different ways for products.

But then it's also just. Creating fine art that is the foundation of what I did when I was younger, and I don't know why I, I never felt, you know, I never continued it. So I'm leaning into that and I'm taking some online, very expressive online oil painting classes that has been great. So it's, again, it's just an online course.

You kind of do it on your own time, but I am really excited about. Just getting back into just free play. And this course is amazing that I've started. So yeah, from a creativity standpoint that's what I've kind of been focusing on right now. And again, creating and not worrying so much about, you know, again, the financial goals.

Lillian Liang Emlet: Yeah, exactly. That's so lovely. It's one of those things where we're always learning and growing and something new. There's always something new and it's just so exciting to be able to spend that time with. Thank you so much for sharing both of those other things that you're listening to and diving into.

And so how can people buy your art, get to know you, find you

Trisha Patel: Yeah.

Lillian Liang Emlet: can get to know you?

Trisha Patel: Absolutely. Thank you. So you can always visit my shop. So it's just very easy. My name tricia patel.com. And Instagram obviously is a great place for you to be able to see the latest work that I've, you know, what I'm working on, latest releases. I would, you know, love it if you were interested in, you know, joining my newsletter because I really try to nurture my subscribers.

You're gonna get. Pretty much early access to any of the new releases of my art that comes out and you get to shop before anybody else. And so special discounts and things, whatnot. So I really do nurture my, my newsletter, you know, subscribers and supporting me. So that's another way that, again, you can kind of follow along with me.

I am not somebody to send you a million, million emails, so, you know, you can ensure that like you're gonna have very good, you know, content coming to your inbox. But you can find me on my shop. On Instagram, I'm also on Facebook and, you know, I'm licensed with a couple different companies and so even if you're on my shop, you're gonna be able to find where my wallpaper is. I've got wallpaper with three companies, and if you wanted to shop my wallpaper you can find the links through my Instagram bio. So I've got 'em in a couple different places. And, and then, fabric and whatnot that I'm selling, I'm selling, tea towels, and of course all of my art prints and my originals is all in my shop.

So hopefully very easy for you to, to be able to find, things and you can always contact me. So, yeah.

Lillian Liang Emlet: And so we'll put the show note in the show notes below on YouTube,

Trisha Patel: Okay.

Lillian Liang Emlet: and Spotify, all of the links for being able

Trisha Patel: Thank you.

Lillian Liang Emlet: Trisha's things because. It's the end of the year and it is time for the holiday shopping. Thank you so much for coming on our podcast

Trisha Patel: my gosh. Thank you.

Lillian Liang Emlet: it is been such

Trisha Patel: I'm so honored.

Lillian Liang Emlet: about leadership, wellbeing, and creativity. Thanks so

Trisha Patel: I appreciate it. This has been, this has been wonderful. Thank you so much, li.

Lillian Liang Emlet: You're welcome.