WVMG Gift Helps Advanced Practice Providers Feel the Love

Dr. Makrina Shanbour helps shape culture at Confluence Health and puts wellbeing at the forefront.

Selfcare is important for everyone, but for people in the medical field, achieving wellbeing can be difficult. That’s because caretakers spend so much of their time focused on the needs of others. Often, there isn’t much energy left to think about themselves.

Dr. Makrina Shanbour, Director of Provider Experience and hospitalist at Confluence Health, spends a lot of time thinking about provider health and wellbeing. About eight years ago, Dr. Shanbour started focusing efforts on helping physicians and Advanced Practice Providers (APPs) connect with the joy and pride in their work.

Although passion for their jobs is in no short supply, the responsibility and demands on providers can be overwhelming which, over time, can cause job dissatisfaction and burnout. The medical literature indicates that provider burnout can lead to significant personal, professional, and organizational consequences.

“If we can’t take care of ourselves, we can’t take care of our patients.” Dr. Shanbour believes. Creating a more supportive environment and building efficiency into practice helps make a more positive experience, which in turn reduces burnout and improves personal and clinical outcomes for providers.

Dr. Shanbour and others at Confluence Health are taking significant steps to address provider wellbeing, so much so that in 2021, Confluence Health received the American Medical Association Joy in Medicine bronze award and a silver award in 2023. This year, the system will be applying for the gold. This work is important because it provides Confluence Health with a roadmap leading towards greater provider wellbeing.

Recently, the Confluence Health Foundation received a donation from Wenatchee Valley Medical Group (WVMG). The gift would help ensure that all providers at Confluence Health received access to a resource called Vital WorkLife. Dr. Shanbour thinks of Vital WorkLife as an employee assistance program on steroids. It provides services like counseling—including on demand services—and coaching on a variety of topics, like efficiency, burnout and leadership, as well as legal and financial services. Previously, the benefit was available to WVMG physicians, but Dr. Shanbour knew that APPs (employees of Confluence Health) faced many of the same challenges.

For Dr. Shanbour, coaching services helped her streamline her work by up to two hours a day. That’s time that she gets back to spend with family and doing things that improve her wellbeing. Thanks to the efforts of Dr. Shanbour and the generous gift from WVMG, all providers at Confluence Health have access to Vital WorkLife, so they can perform at their peak and keep the joy in their practice.