About

So you want to know more?

The podcast Positively Deviant Emergency Medicine project aims to find the tips, tricks and strategies used by successful emergency physicians to build a sustainable and exciting career through long form interviews.

I’m an academic emergency physician, teacher, researcher and informaticist at Regions Hospital, located in Saint Paul, Minnesota.  I hope to use long form interviews of successful emergency physicians to spread the key tools that make them successful.

Why another podcast?

I think many of us see others in their life who seemingly have figured ‘it’ out. These people are unfailingly happy, slow to anger, physically fit, home quickly after their shift, have solid flow and billing metrics, raising a family, and on and on and on. I know that this can’t be real – no one has it all figured out.

However, I began to wonder if there are themes to success and sustainability that others could learn from. I think these themes are important for any early career physician or for a physician who feels burnt out and considering leaving practice.

My drive to move this project forward stems from my own deeply personal position of occasional burnout combined with my love of lifelong learning. More importantly, I hope to use some AV Club skills I’ve acquired over the years to bring others along for the ride.

Who are my subjects?

In the beginning, they’ve been the colleagues I wanted to quiz about work and life in general. These people may not even recognize their ‘positive deviant’ status – at least their status in my mind. Moving forward, I’ll identify future subjects through word of mouth.

I hope some themes and patterns emerge from the darkness that will help all of us learn. Learn how to leave a shift feeling fulfilled. Willing and ready to recommend their career to their own daughter or son, niece or nephew, or even some random neighbor kid. Discover a different method of practice that might enhance your own fulfillment and joy at work.

Most importantly, I hope the connections created with this project results in a noticed-but-unmeasurable positive impact the providers who listen and the patients they serve.

Brad Gordon –

Feb 2018