"What do you do when your dreams come true and it's not quite like you had planned?"
"After the Thrill Is Gone"   The Eagles

Have you lost the passion that drove you to practice medicine?

Do you take care of patients instead of giving care to them?

Does giving to patients leave you empty and frustrated?

Are you angry more than you want to be?

Do you tell yourself that you can't leave or change your situation and that you should just accept it?

If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, The Healers Path was designed for you.

Physician Assistants, Nurse practitioners, Physicians, and Nurses are invited to participate in a week long residential experiential retreat the week of April 23rd to the 29th, 2006. Examine the slide into burnout and the steps to take to rise from the ashes.

Held on Ocracoke Island on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, this week will give you time to evaluate:

"Cynicism is the smoke that rises from the ashes of burned out dreams."
Anon

The healing professions in America are experiencing difficult and challenging times. Changes in the health care marketplace are occurring with incredible speed, and the pressures on providers are constantly increasing. Cynicism, burnout, and lack of meaning become major problems when the rewards of the work do not keep up with the pressures, and they drive some to leave the professions they once loved. Many healthcare providers are wondering how they can regain the compassion which led them to this work.

The Healers Path offers a unique opportunity for health care practitioners to examine the call which brought them into the healing professions and to learn skills to diminish the stress they encounter in their daily lives.

"Sometimes we lose the path; sometimes the path loses us."
Into the Woods   Steven Sondheim and James Lapine

Who Should Attend?

The Healers Path workshop is designed for NPs, PAs, physicians, and nurses who have lost their passion for their work as healers. If you are drained by your work, if you come home feeling angry and hollow, if you just go through the motions, or if you are thinking about leaving your career, this workshop will give you the time and the tools to re-evaluate your identity as a health care profesional.

"The best way to help humankind is through the perfection of yourself."
"Krishna's Dictum"

Why it is important?

Many studies document increasing levels of dissatisfaction among medical professionals. Other studies have found that decreases in job satisfaction and increases in stress levels are closely associated with increases in medical errors and decreases in the quality of patient care. We all know the detrimental effects of stress on our physical, emotional, and spiritual health.

We owe it to ourselves, our loved ones and our patients to learn ways to function within the healthcare system and to avoid the ravages of burnout.

You have spent your entire career taking care of others - take a week to take care of yourself.