What are the “Sharpies” that people on healthcare’s front lines confront that represent choices their leaders have made, reflecting a focus on something other than what’s best for the patient/the clinician, and/or indicating we’d rather put a Band-Aid on a serious wound than to try and work on improving the condition(s) causing the wound in the first place?

Burnout for many frontline workers occurs when their identity is split by institutional demands, structures, and narrowly defined performance indicators. Their inner calling to heal separates from the outer requirements of the profession.