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- This is the Becker's
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who power us healthcare.

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are released daily containing

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and thought leadership.

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Thanks for listening.
Now here's the episode.

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- Welcome everyone,

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to the Becker's Healthcare podcast series.

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I'm Mariah Mohammed Ry

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and moderator with Becker's Healthcare.

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I'm absolutely thrilled
to have with me today,

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Dr. Day Chung, president
and CMO at Children's Health

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and UT Southwestern Joint
Pediatric Enterprise.

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Doctor, it's very nice

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to have you on the
podcast today. How are you

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- Doing Great. Uh, thanks for having me.

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- Yeah, of course. Very
excited to talk with you today.

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Uh, and to get us started,

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would you mind please introducing yourself

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and telling us a bit
about your background?

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- Yes, I'd be happy to.

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Um, I'm a passionate, uh,
academic pediatric surgeon,

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so I brought on little babies and children

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and a physician executive
in Dallas, Texas, uh,

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with more than 25 years of clinical

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and leadership experience.

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So my role currently I am,
um, serving as the President

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and Chief Medical Officer
for Children's Health

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and UT Southwestern's
Joint Pediatric Enterprise.

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We affectionately prefer
to as JPE, uh, around here.

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And I just, uh, completed
serving as a surgeon

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and chief at Children's
Medical Center at Dallas

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and Plano Campus for several years.

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And, uh, and I remain as the,
uh, uh, academic, uh, uh,

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professor of surgery at UT
Southwestern Medical Center.

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So through the JPE as I mentioned, we have

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combined our respective
expertise to collaborate and,

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and advance our pediatric
patient care research teaching

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and certainly community outreach.

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And, and our goal is to
really transform the lives

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of our region's children's for the better.

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So my current role, I'm responsible for

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strengthening our clinical operations

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and fostering a stronger
partnership across the JPE

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and throughout the, uh, certainly,
uh, uh, region and at DFW

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and North Texas communities.

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So I work closely with leaders
at the Children's Health

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and UT Southwestern Medical
Group practice to develop

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and execute strategies to

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operationalizing across all
spectrum of pediatric, uh,

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practices and service lines
with the, really the goal always

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to improve the overall
patient care, being mindful of

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cost and highly being efficient

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and deliver the, you know,
easy access for patients

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and our, one of the
fastest, if not the fastest,

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rapidly growing North
Texas pediatric population.

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And lastly, I'm a, uh,
native Texan who went

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to high school here some like years ago.

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And, uh, I'm proud to, uh, elevate care

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for children in the region
and help shape the next

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generation pediatric surgeons.

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So those are a few, uh, uh, sort

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of points I wanted to share with you.

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- Yeah, absolutely. Thank
you so much for sharing.

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So with all your experience
that you just talked about, um,

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and what you're currently doing now,

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can you tell me about your
most successful project

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or initiative from the last year?

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Uh, what, what issues
were you trying to solve

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and also what drove the success?

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- Yeah, no, happy to share.

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I'd say I think that one
of the several things,

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obviously major initiative,

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but one thing that we've really put a lot

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of emphasis in the highlight is, uh,

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recent innovation initiative
that we've launched

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to help lead our organization

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to be ranked the best children's
hospital in north Texas

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by US News and World Report.

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And with those ranking, uh, it,

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it isn't about just getting ranked

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and recognized it, it's really
about having infrastructure

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and resources and
foundation, uh, key elements

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and support to make sure we are
delivering the best possible

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care for all patient that we, uh, see.

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And, and, and it does take
a whole truly a team effort.

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So for example, I mean our

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significant efforts in
pediatric mental health crisis

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and that really just, we've
done some great, great work

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to serve the community

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and so many kids in teenagers
that are in great, uh,

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need of our health.

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So we recently released
in our 2023 beyond a b,

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c report from Children's Health and,

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and, um, detailed the, the
current state of mental health

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of children in north Texas

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and how we as an organization
are, are doing about

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and as well as what really as,
uh, uh, as a community, uh,

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in a medical community that
we need to be doing far more.

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So that's some of the couple
examples that I wanted

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to highlight.

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And then lastly, we, we've got
some great, uh, expansions,

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uh, in our Plano campus,

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which is about 20 miles
north of Dallas campus.

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There's, uh, if you were to drive

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by in this neighborhood in Texas, I mean,

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there are just cranes
and building expansions

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and near completion.

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So we're excited to have a, um,

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really a anticipated new
tower opening in the fourth

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quarter of 2024.

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So lots of, lots of work
underway in anticipation of, uh,

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opening up so many more
beds to serve the community

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and needs in northern
market as well as Plano.

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And then we last year launched a, uh,

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multi-specialty ambulatory
clinic and Prosper Texas.

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So that again, to go

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and be closer to families
home to deliver highly

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specialized expertise and, uh, care.

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Uh, it's been a great, great, uh,

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um, offering to the community.

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So we're really proud of that.

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Um, so there was a couple examples of, uh,

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a couple successful projects
that we have come undertaken

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and come to, uh, see
to fruition last year.

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- Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much

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for giving us that insight.

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Definitely sounds like you

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and the organization has
been busy for this year.

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Um, the clinical workforce has
changed a lot in the last few

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years as I know you are aware of.

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What challenges are you still facing

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and how do you see the
clinical workforce evolving?

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- Yeah, I think pandemic,
uh, has changed lots

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of stuff across all enterprises

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and hospital across the country.

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There's several, um, variables
and compounding factors,

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but I think one of those
most important areas

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that we put a lot of focus and emphasis

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and resources to burnout and
wellness are care providers.

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It is really important is
equally as we're taking care

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of more complex and complicated

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and sicker patients, we have to make sure

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that our team members are healthy

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and we have resources to support

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with all very difficult
work they're doing day in,

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day out, frontline.

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So Children's Health as an employee

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of choice has taken a number
of steps to support our staff

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employees positions, uh, overall wellbeing

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through a comprehensive benefits program

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and nurturing the environment
and supporting our goals

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and empowering them to reach
full potential, both work

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as well as in basically
outside personal lives as well.

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I mean, we, we've done really
some incredibly innovative

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and, uh, a resource enrich, um, offerings

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to supporting our staff
work-life balance is

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so, so important.

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Healthcare delivering
healthcare has changed

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substantially since the covid.

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And so we, we wanna make sure
that we, we go far and above

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and beyond to make, take
care of our team members.

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'cause without healthy minds

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and healthy, um, approached
by our team members, we,

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we we're not in any, um,
a good position to be able

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to really take care of some

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of the most complicated complex patients

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that we're dealing with every day.

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- Yeah, absolutely. Thank
you so much for sharing.

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And Doctor, before I let you
go, the last thing I wanted

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to ask you is, do you have any advice

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for aspiring physician nurse leaders?

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- Oh, I have many, but I <laugh>
I'll share just a couple.

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I think the key is
communication and collaboration.

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You have to engage at the
end of day healthcare.

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Delivering patient care is,

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is all about team work and team effort.

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So I say collaboration is the
key to get the absolute best

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and maximum result that really
relies on various expertise,

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uh, the team around myself
or any members of the team.

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And so that we all compliment each other.

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So I think as a great leader

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or a good leader, it is about recognizing

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that it's all about your team members

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that are really working
together to deliver the care

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in a very coordinated and
organized and supportive fashion.

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So I think that is really,
really important, uh, advice

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that I would have for aspiring physician

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and or nursing leaders.

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And with that is I just
elaborated just stay healthy, uh,

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healthy body, healthy mind.

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I mean all that goes along.

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I mean, I think that we
have to really take care

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of each other in order for us

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to better take care of our patients.

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So I would say that's the,
that's the advice that I have

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for aspiring physicians and nurse leaders.

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- Wonderful. Well, thank you so much

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for those spinal thoughts, doctor.

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There's definitely been an amazing

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and informative discussion today.

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So I wanna thank you so much

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for coming on Becker's Healthcare

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and I look forward to
connecting with you again soon.

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- Thank you, Mariah. And
thank you for having me.

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- It's so important for leaders
at the top of organizations

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to keep learning, stay
sharp, grow their networks,

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help our audience better do
this in a more simplified,

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personalized, and meaningful way.

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