Reigniting Purpose
in Healthcare Teams

Transforming Healthcare Coaching Podcast — Episode 95: Reigniting Purpose in Healthcare Teams. Host: Klaus Grim, PA-C CPC ELI-MP. Guest: Vicki Landers, DPT MHA PCC — physical therapist, professional speaker, and coach at Transforming Healthcare Coaching. Recorded at the Healthcare Leadership Retreat in Sedona, Arizona. Published February 9, 2026.

Vicki Landers: We lose why we're even doing stuff. We don't even think about it because it's like, "Well, it's just what I do. It's just what I do. It's just who I am." When you think about what do we do in healthcare, we affect lives, we interact with people sometimes at their very lowest point. A positive environment does not mean that we're not having discussions about things that are hard and challenging. It means it's a safe way to do it because again, we all have a shared purpose and because we have a shared purpose, we're more willing to engage in dialogue. Recording of self and your thoughts can be magic. Especially if you don't just think of them, but you're actually literally saying them out loud, hearing what we say, and then listening back to it is extraordinarily powerful.

Klaus Grim: So everyone in healthcare knows that we lose our purpose after seeing and being part of all the challenges that we go through every day. And today we're gonna talk a little bit about how to regain that purpose. So I am lucky to be joined by Vicki Landers today. So Vicki, you are a speaker, you're a physical therapist, you are a coach, right? So when you hear about people losing their purpose in healthcare, what's coming up for you? So most

Vicki Landers: of the time people don't even know they've lost their purpose. What happens is we just get into this, "I get up in the morning, I go to work. I am frustrated at work. I come home, I do the meal prep. I live my life. I maybe do exercise. I go to bed and I do it all over again." And we just don't even know. We lose why we're even doing stuff. We don't even think about it because it's, like "well, it's just what I do. It's just what I do. It's just who I am." And so, when we lose the idea of why we're doing what we're doing, it sort of puts our flame out and doesn't keep us burning towards goals and meaning in our day-to-day lives.

Klaus Grim: So it sounds like what you're saying is people in healthcare are just going day by day not knowing that that purpose has been lost in the first place. Right. So it sounds like the first step in maybe, is awareness. Is having awareness that maybe that purpose has been lost, right?

Vicki Landers: Yeah. It's asking yourself periodically, "Why do I do what I'm doing?" When you think back, I love to ask people why did they get into healthcare? Because there's a lot of different reasons. Some people get into healthcare because, they had an experience when they were a kid, and the doctor, the nurse, the physical therapist was like, "Oh, wow, I wanna do that." Or maybe it's your parents. Your parent was in healthcare and you saw this great example. Or maybe it's just the science. I know some pharmacists, the reason that they're pharmacists is because they like chemistry was so cool. But then we go through everything and we don't revisit the reason we picked that school or we picked that profession. Yeah. But it was there for a reason in the first place.

Klaus Grim: Yeah. I'm trying to think back to my why of 'why I went into medicine.' I think everything that we're talking about right now, I'm thinking about when I was in applying for PA school, "What did I write my personal statement? What was the underlying drive that I chose PA school over becoming a medical doctor, versus becoming a physical therapist. What was my why for that specific profession?" And I think, when I was struggling, a little bit of burnout myself, I went through some of that questioning. I was like, "Wait, I think that purpose was lost. And so when I started to revisit that exact question, I uncovered a lot about who I want to be. I'm curious what things have you seen when people start to revisit that why of why they got into medicine?

Vicki Landers: Well, it unites a little bit of a spark. It brings back like the humanity of the purpose. Because when you think about what do we do in healthcare, we affect lives. We interact with people sometimes at their very lowest point. They're scared, they're frustrated, they might be angry. They may actually have, you know, they may be confused. They may have dementia, but we're dealing with them in a really vulnerable state. And one of the things that I like to think about is this little spark that we have: that we're so privileged to be in that moment with people. It's such a cool thing to have that opportunity. And so when people start to reconnect, they start to get that spark again and that helps them refocus their meaning, and that can help them let go of some of the anger and the frustration that everybody is dealing with. Because there's so many demands placed upon us, but why are those demands there? Because the purpose of healthcare is to take care of people.

Klaus Grim: Yeah. It opens up a whole new doors when you start to think of yourself in the situation of the privilege that we get to be, in the lives of other people, taking care of people in their most vulnerable states, right? That they don't entrust in anybody else. And so I'm curious, I find that a lot of healthcare professionals may find that revisiting this purpose can be very cliche, or it could be very, cold. Like, why do I need to do that? I am living day by day. It's the system. The system needs to change. That's the reason why I'm upset and I'm struggling. And I don't need to do this work. What would you just say to somebody who maybe views that question like that?

Vicki Landers: The first thing I'll say is, "Yes, the system has problems." Anybody who works in healthcare, we have to acknowledge that there are absolutely challenges in what we deal with. Whether it's payment models, productivity standards, insurance companies; we have to acknowledge that this is the world that we're living in, and we also get to acknowledge that we're a part of that. And that we have choices that we can make every single day so we can show up and I can be angry at the system, understandably so, but that makes for a really miserable day. So if we start to recognize that we have more choices, we can make a small choice that's like, "Why am I with this person right now? I'm with this person. Because they're having a problem." So as a physical therapist, "I'm with you because you just had your knee replaced and it's not going well." My why is to help it make it go better. Yeah. I can't fix everything, but I can make something better. And making something better for somebody else is, again, it's generally why we went into healthcare in the first place. So it's looking at the little micro moments can make a really big difference as to how we start to feel a little bit better in a system that is unwieldy.

Klaus Grim: Yeah. So not thinking of like this overhaul change. Right. That needs to happen from the system or from ourselves, but maybe one small step that we can do to remember our 'why' amid this chaos that we all work on in healthcare. Yeah, right. And, one thing I really valued what you mentioned was we are only at agency to change ourselves and how we show up, right? So we can blame the healthcare system every day for going into work, that the reason why that I'm unhappy is because I don't have the resources to take care of my patients and show up that every day at work. And as a result, come home exhausted, not exercising, eating unhealthy, struggling with relationships as a result of all these challenges, just causing overwhelming stress and anxiety. Or you can do something about it for yourself and for your patients, right?

Vicki Landers: Yeah. Because the interesting thing is that the research shows that when we start to recognize our own autonomy and our ability to control ourselves and our reactions to what's happening around us, then we actually shift in satisfaction. And when we see a shift in our own personal satisfaction, we start to show up better at work. And that influences the people around you. And I love this because it doesn't matter what your role is in an organization, if you're a frontline clinician or if you are a leader, the people that you interact with on your team, your leaders, your patients, whoever you are interacting with, your energy influences them. So if you can start to recognize that, "Oh, you have some choices in how you show up" then that'll bleed and bleed into other people. It's not quick, it's not fast, but it does start to influence the organization and only when we start to feel more satisfied and comfortable and competent can we then take the next step to actually try to help figure out. Whatever system that we do have influence on.

Klaus Grim: It's that energy attracts like energy. And unfortunately, it's the same for more destructive energy. When there's somebody in a team that is destructive and bringing the team down, it oftentimes makes the team very unhappy, right? And bring it down to lower energy. But the same goes true with people who are more constructive in their energy. When I'm at work, when I see the leader or I see the healthcare professional, the nurse, even the secretary, who are just positive, who are creating solutions instead of all the problems that we exist every day. I want to be more like them. It pushes me. It motivates me. And it's the same thing that I think that could benefit a lot of people is when you start to work on yourself, as you mentioned, right? And stop using the system as the problem, and work on you as the solution, you'll likely get more buy-in from your team to do the same thing.

Vicki Landers: Yeah. So two things that you made me think about. One of them is this statement that I have. It's like you can walk into that meeting, you know, you know this one.

Klaus Grim: Yeah.

Vicki Landers: And you can recognize somebody else's energy and be like, "Oh look, I don't wanna play in that sandbox." Yeah. And you can be aware to not get sucked into that energy. But another thing that I'm thinking about that's kind of different in concept was when I used to have team meetings, and in those team meetings we would have this conversation, we would start out with, and this was people who were clinicians, non-clinicians, administrative staff, administrative supports. I would go around the room and I would ask them how they contribute to patient care. Those were some of the most fun moments because the person who answered the phone, she's like, "Well, I contribute because when somebody calls with a question, I get them to the right person." The person in medical records she's like, "I help because I make sure that the records are actually neat and tidy so that when we have surveys come or somebody needs their records, I can get them to them quickly." Everybody could speak to how they helped the patient and it helped solidify the why of that particular team because it was all about taking care of the patient. Yeah. And then we also got to some supporting of each other. My purpose is to support the clinician so that they can take care of the patient. Those were such, "Oh, those were such great conversations." Oh

Klaus Grim: my gosh. It sounds like it. Yeah. And when there's purpose among a team, patient-centered care improves. Your showing up to work improves. . People are interested in coming back to work, instead of the day-by-day where it makes complete sense that the healthcare system makes it really challenging for us to wake up and go to work everyday, but when we start to make those shifts in ourselves, and for our teams, it makes life so much more enjoyable.

Vicki Landers: When the team is all aligned towards one purpose, you're a little bit less likely to get some infighting between, "My job, your job." Our job is to take care of the patients. And so I think about it being on the same side of the table. We're on the same side of the table trying to take care of the problem on the other side of the table, which is making sure we take care of people. You start to see a little bit more cooperation. You've got empathy between your teammates, and it's so beautiful to watch.

Klaus Grim: I can imagine. And as coaches, that's what we do, right? We work with individuals, we work with groups, we work with teams who are looking for more aligned purpose and to improve patient-centered outcomes, to improve workplace culture and transform the energy of a healthcare team into one that's just positive and striving for changes and innovation and just ultimate growth.

Vicki Landers: Yes.

Klaus Grim: Right.

Vicki Landers: And it's so fun when we talk about this 'cause we want this positive environment and people, they start to think, "Oh, toxic positivity, we're not..." a positive environment does not mean that we're not having discussions about things that are hard and challenging. It means it's a safe way to do it because again, we all have a shared purpose and because we have a shared purpose, we're more willing to engage in dialogue. As opposed to conflict.

Klaus Grim: Yeah.

Vicki Landers: And I've seen that happen and it's really fun. It's really fun to watch that occur.

Klaus Grim: And so we're talking a lot about being able to find your purpose among the, just constant challenges of healthcare. So let's talk about maybe one micro step, as we talked about just before, what's one micro step you would maybe recommend to somebody who has felt like they've lost that purpose and wants to regain it again?

Vicki Landers: So, if you're a journaler, a great prompt is "Why did I go into healthcare?" And just spending a little time to think about it. If you're not a journaler, it's that drive to work. Some people listen to music. Some people listen to podcasts. Take a morning, don't listen to anything. Ask yourself, "Why am I doing this job?" Maybe even ask yourself, "Who is it that I'm helping today?" And just ask some of those questions. Because it doesn't take but a moment, to think it through. You can even do it when you're in the middle of a challenging patient, because those are the hard times. There's that patient who doesn't wanna do what you have recommended that they do. And, think about why am I here? What is my effect? Because you are having an effect. Yeah. And just remembering that, that what you do matters.

Klaus Grim: I love journaling. I think we encourage many of our clients, as coaches to journal and reflect. And one thing I'll add is a lot of us coaches and entrepreneurs do is record ourselves talking. And so those moments in driving to work, coming home from work are moments that you can reflect yourself out loud. And I'll be honest with you, I'm not the greatest journaler. I love to reflect, but how to do so for me was very difficult. It was hard for me to sit down and process and write things down. So for me, sometimes it's just a walk. A walk and talk, right? And talk to myself and ask myself that question. Go in with a theme. What is my 'why'? Why did I go into medicine? Oftentimes, my problems have changed over time, but I would encourage that as another avenue for people to explore their purpose.

Vicki Landers: I love that idea. Because I am not a great journaler as well. I'm growing into it. But the recording of self and your thoughts can be magic. Especially if you don't just think of them, but you're actually literally saying them out loud, hearing what we say, and then listening back to it is extraordinarily powerful.

Klaus Grim: And listening back to it after a busy, chaotic day. Yes. Right. When it's like I had these patient outcomes happen, or a conflict at work. I need something to ground me to say, "Don't leave medicine." Right.

Vicki Landers: Like I'm not running away. Right.

Klaus Grim: I love that.

Vicki Landers: That's beautiful. I love that idea.

Klaus Grim: Well, great. Well, Vicki, we are in Sedona, Arizona at our Healthcare Leadership Retreat right now. And so we are about to go do some sound bath, some reflection ourselves. So we wanted to thank the listeners that have joined us on this episode from Sedona, Arizona. And please leave us a like, comment, response. Let us know what you liked, what you're interested in hearing more about, and we'd love to have Vicki back on for another episode. So thank you everybody, and thank you Vicki, for joining us.

Vicki Landers: Thank you. This has been so much fun.