Burned Out by Dean Mafako, M.D.
What's It About?
An ambitious cardiac physician fights for the young patients in his care, facing a series of escalating conflicts that threaten to end his career.How do you know if you’re burned out? I promise you will know what it feels like when it hits you, because it is not subtle.
Author and pediatric physician Dean Mafako explores the all too familiar topic of burn out in the emotionally charged setting of a children’s hospital in Biloxi, Mississippi. In this gripping fictional account, an ambitious cardiac physician fights for the young patients in his care, facing a series of escalating conflicts that threaten to end his career.
Burned Out is an insightful look into organizational and interpersonal deficiencies that can erode the most dedicated personnel and cause the collapse of a crucial healthcare facility. This book is packed with page turning drama, but also contains an important cautionary message for anyone embarking on or in the midst of a demanding career path.
Fighting a Toxic System
Burned Out opens with cardiac surgeon Phil Porter berating staff for not following his explicit but incorrect instructions. The book’s main character, Eric Philson, intervenes to defend the nursing staff, and realizes that Porter is far more concerned about being right than finding the best treatment for the patient. Eric’s team works to save the young patient from bleeding to death, but Dr. Porter continues his rant with a sociopathic, dissociated look in his eyes.
The bullheaded arrogance of multiple physicians is but one of the challenges that Dr. Philson confronts in his mission to correct an unfair deficit in healthcare at the hospital’s failing cardiac unit. Overcoming tremendous challenges, Dr. Philson makes great progress in eliminating the toxic environment of the unit, but changes to the hospital’s leadership and policies threaten to undermine everything he’s accomplished. Philson witnesses egregious errors that compromise the safety of those under his care and send him into a downward personal spiral.
What begins as an inspirational story of personal sacrifice for the benefit of vulnerable children becomes a relentless struggle against bureaucracy and administrative incompetence that degrades the physical and emotional well-being of the young doctor. Burned Out is an account that is mirrored and repeated in the real world across businesses of all shapes and sizes.
When I arrived I did the job of six people and worked over one hundred hours a week for more than a year until I collapsed at my home and nearly died.
While the extreme conditions of Dr. Eric Philson’s experience might surpass the norm, they are representative of what so many of us face. We are often required to make great personal sacrifices for the profit of our employers — who often give little or no consideration to the people who drive their success.
Realities of Burnout
In Burned Out, Mafako adeptly portrays and explores the reasons that drive us to pursue success at all costs. Through the course of the book, Mafako addresses questions such as: When someone feels burned out, why don’t they just leave?
The main character tries to do exactly that after realizing that his marriage, his career and his health are in jeopardy. He considers a position at another facility, even interviews and is offered a job, but he is enticed to stay at the problematic institution via emotional manipulation, elusive promises and bold-faced lies.
In the final chapters of this insightful work, Mafako reflects on the symptoms and causes of burn out through the voice of the protagonist:
You understand that you are being manipulated by others and you become overwhelmed by hospital bureaucracy. It feels as though you have been violated by administrators who have robbed you of your passion for helping children. The passion that drove you to become a health care provider is replaced with mistrust, negativity, and hopeless skepticism.
While the primary themes of Burned Out can be painfully familiar, there are significant lessons to be learned. Mafako shares these difficult experiences in a manner that feels cathartic and compassionate, ultimately providing a blueprint for escape through his fictional character that many readers will find helpful.
About Dean Mafako:
Dean Mafako, M.D. is an author, physician and clinical professor of pediatrics with more than 15 years of clinical and research experience. He is passionate about medicine and helping others. He enjoys writing fiction and non-fiction novels about difficult and traumatic life experiences that lead to personal growth and spiritual healing in hopes of helping others who may be struggling with life’s challenges.
