Brenda Boatswain, PhD, CGP, SHRM-CP, is an assistant professor in the department of family and social medicine and well-being manager for Montefiore Einstein’s To Your Health! Associate Wellness program, part of Human Resources. In this role, she works with faculty, staff, and students at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine individually and in groups, to support people’s well-being at work and beyond. She is also a member of the department of medicine’s diversity council. Here, she talks about the fundamental importance of rest and the intersection between work and mental health.
Tell us about your background and how it influences your work.
Dr. Boatswain: I was raised in the Caribbean, on the island nation of Saint Vincent in the Grenadines. I grew up in a home with my grandparents, and I was shaped by their Christian values, and their emphasis on education, caring for others, and sharing with those less fortunate. My grandmother had a high school education and worked in different vocations such as a seamstress, teacher’s aide, nurse’s aide, midwife, and ran our local post office. My grandfather was a college graduate and the headmaster of a parochial school. Education and healthcare are the two main professions that I was exposed to, so it’s no wonder that what I do now combines the two. I moved to Brooklyn with my grandmother when I was about nine and a half, after my grandparents raised their own five children and my grandfather passed away. To this day I can't fathom how she did it all, but I think part of it is the Caribbean culture that we grew up in. God, family, education and using your skills to do good in the world were key values as part of the culture. And you took a Sabbath's rest. You need at least one day to rejuvenate and focus on the things that you value, so you can start again, motivated for the next week. That is how we lived, and I maintain that today.
I stay connected to my Caribbean heritage through volunteerism and involvement with philanthropic groups. I support the American Foundation for the University of the West Indies (AFUWI), and I’m looking forward to an upcoming trip with the Caribbean Medical Mission to provide mental health workshops and resources in Dominica.
Just how important is rest?
Dr. Boatswain: We are constantly on the go and the brain thrives when we are motivated and active, but also when we have times of rest. We need to build this into our days and our weeks. Many people in healthcare do not have that luxury. But it’s important to find ways to take breaks. Humans are very creative. We can problem solve and I believe we can do this. And I think this new generation is going to force us to. It's exciting to think about the values they are advocating for, and we have an opportunity to respond to that.
We want everyone to feel that sense of appreciation and belonging, that they are seen and valued, and they have a place here. We know this is a protective factor against burnout. And this is not just important for the individual. It's also going to impact the success of the team.
Dr. Brenda Boatswain, assistant professor in the department of family and social medicine and well-being manager for Montefiore Einstein’s To Your Health! Associate Wellness program
When did you first become interested in psychology?
Dr. Boatswain: I attended Clara Barton High School for the Health Professions, a New York City public school in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, where I took my first psychology class. Ideally a career should be something that feeds you, and that was instantly how I felt—you get the course materials and you're so engrossed that time flies, and it’s a joy. Psychology gives you hands-on tools to be able to help people right away.
How did your career progress from there?
Dr. Boatswain: I went on to major in psychology at Barnard College, and then I got a master’s in counseling psychology. That's when I began to realize the intersection between work and mental health, which is still my focus today. There are a lot of theories and research about how work is important for mental health. It gives us dignity, purpose and meaning. I had excellent professors along the way who told me I needed to get my PhD. I hadn't really thought about that, but with their encouragement and support, that's what I did. It was one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life. Among other things, it helped me understand how to recognize and conduct good research, and how to find the science-based tools that people need to live optimal lives.
What led you to Montefiore Einstein?
Dr. Boatswain: I've worked in community hospitals, college counseling centers, and academic settings. I've taught undergraduate and graduate school. Here at Montefiore Einstein I get to combine those experiences, providing one-on-one consultations with both clinical and non-clinical staff, programs for teams and departments, research, and I also get to also teach residents, nurses, and medical students. A lot of it is around managing stress, and preventing burnout and compassion fatigue, occupational hazards in healthcare. I also bring experience in how to do outreach to diverse populations in terms of ethnicity, race, age, culture, degrees and levels of training, to be able to navigate in all of those spaces to help people feel seen and heard. It’s important to feel that regardless of what degrees you have or what your title is, that you, as a person, matter.
There is a stereotype that people who work in healthcare are often not good at caring for themselves.
Dr. Boatswain: We sometimes still have a culture of just plow through and focus on your patients—"it's not about me.” Some people I speak with don’t want to focus on themselves, but rather on structural issues that can lead to burnout. We are part of the structural issues. I tell people, you need to be well so that you can bring something to the table in terms of possible solutions at the structural level. We need to look at both.
If someone is feeling overwhelmed, what is the lowest bar for self-care?
Dr. Boatswain: Take your lunch. We are a 24-7 operation. But we need to talk among ourselves and our teams, provide coverage, and take breaks. In taking lunch you can nourish yourself, hydrate, move your body to energize, socialize to build camaraderie, and take some deep breaths to reset the nervous system. You can then come back to work feeling more like yourself, and you can be present for your patients and your colleagues. And if lifestyle changes like these are not helping, professional counseling is readily available for all staff.
You also have a formal role in diversity, equity, and inclusion, as part of the department of medicine’s diversity council. How does this intersect with your work in well-being?
Dr. Boatswain: Some people may still think, DEI, oh, that means Black and Brown people, right? But diversity is also age, gender identity, sexual identity, disabilities that can be seen and ones that are invisible, to name a few. When I'm meeting with people individually, helping them understand their challenges and looking at their various identities and social needs—what we call the social drivers of health—they can have a profound impact on well-being and quality of life.
If you are from a marginalized and underestimated group, for example, or an associate with a mental illness, you may not think about how that intersects with how you show up at work. How do people interact with you because of your identities that they perceive, correctly or incorrectly? How does that translate into the values that are important to you at work? Do these factors impact your sense of belonging?
These are conversations that are important for people to have, starting with themselves, and for managers to have with their teams. We want everyone to feel that sense of appreciation and belonging, that they are seen and valued, and they have a place here. We know this is a protective factor against burnout. And this is not just important for the individual. It's also going to impact the success of the team.
Even 10 years ago, it was not as common to think about how these identities might affect people at work.
Dr. Boatswain: We didn't have the language. This has been developing over the past number of decades, even in psychology. We need that language to help people recognize and name their own diverse identities, and start to be able to talk about them. If people don’t like the term label, we can just call it a descriptor—a holistic description of a person that includes identity.
We've really come a long way, and the work we’re doing on the diversity council is critical. We have leaders in all of these areas who are thinking together about diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. This can only make the organization stronger and more welcoming, and that's going to impact the care given and received as well as the bottom line in a good way.
Posted on: Thursday, June 13, 2024