Real Talk is a program that creates a space for conversations that heal – bringing dignity, meaning, and significance to our experience as care providers.
As healthcare providers, we deal with situations that are truly unique to our profession. They cause us incredible joy, sadness, pride, disappointment, guilt, fear – the whole gamut of emotions. We have plenty of opportunities to share our cases, do quality review, and reflect on our mistakes. But we rarely talk about how it all feels. We don't discuss what it's like when our patient dies, when a child is sick, when we witness a miracle, or what it's like to be a part of a team that literally saves lives.
In-person. Departments, teams, or collaborative groups meet for Real Talk sessions where one or more providers shares a real story of their experience working in medicine, followed by guided discussion in small groups. The program helps increase comradery, combat burnout and compassion fatigue, and refocus teams on the joy in medicine.
Podcast. The Real Talk podcast brings these provider stories and experiences to a wider audience. Each episode features a care provider’s real story followed by reflection questions.
Real Talk was created by Alicia Mikolaycik Gonzalez (Kurtz), MD, during her residency in emergency medicine at UCSF Fresno. She has since brought this sought-after program to multiple residencies, clinical departments, national and regional conferences, and provider groups across the country. Dr. Gonzalez (Kurtz) was named one of EMRA’s 45 Under 45 influencers in emergency medicine, is currently a Medical Director in Santa Maria, CA, and is passionate about shifting the culture of medicine toward celebrating the human side of our clinical experience.