Introducing Our Physician Coaches
Our certified coaches are Physicians who are practicing clinical medicine and have thousands of hours of coaching experience in the specialized area of helping Physicians get home with today's work done.
In addition to the specific assistance given within the Charting Coaching Calls, every month, we also invite a certified expert Physician Coach to cover a broad range of topics relevant to improving Physician wellness and building sustainable clinical careers.
Dr Sarah Smith (she/her), Charting Coach, Clinical Day Advisor and Rural Family Physician
(including ER and in-patients)
Dr. Sarah Smith completed medical training and general practice fellowship in Australia. She moved to rural Canada in 2013 and returned to rural Queensland Australia in 2024.
Sarah discovered general life coaching while on a personal mission to figure out how to stop feeling trapped by the clinical day. 15 years of spending evenings and weekends finishing up the work of the clinical day was no longer sustainable.
As sole income earner for her family, the option to leave medicine was not practical. Leaving the office hours after the last patient increased the mom guilt. Spending weekends avoiding family activities to complete paperwork created frustration and contributed to burn-out.
To make the clinical day sustainable, everything about her clinical day required evaluation, evolution and adaptation to create the clinical day where she could run on time and have her tasks, charts and notes completed within the clinical day. With no strategic process to follow, it took Sarah a full 18 months to achieve this result, using the support of a general life coach.
With this new found time and an understanding of the steps to achieve change, Sarah wanted to share this knowledge with struggling colleagues.
From this work, physicians, residents and clinicians now have access to these foundational strategies, physician coaching support, peer-guided problem-solving and a community of supportive peers to help them improve their clinical day experience faster than ever and create time for their lives outside of medicine.
Sarah enjoys time with her family, hiking, kayaking, paddleboarding and adventuring.
Dr. Noelle Nelson
Dr. Noelle Nelson is a practicing internal medicine physician who came to coaching from a place of misery in her personal and professional life.
Now, she helps other physicians crawl out of endless survival mode and into a life of more daily joy with the tools of self coaching, self-compassion, boundaries, seeing possibility and closing the gap.
Noelle enjoys all things outdoors especially paddleboarding with her dog, Boundary Waters canoeing, marathons and of course sneaking away to personal development instructor retreats.
Dr. Milene Argo:
Dr. Argo is a board certified Internist from Georgia. Her passion is coaching physicians on all topics that affect their mental, emotional and physical well-being.
She helps physicians create boundaries around work while bolstering their personal life to create more joy, happiness, fulfillment and fun.
Dr. Argo believes we all grow through self- awareness.
Together we create balance by focusing on what’s got your attention and expending your energy.
Medicine has taken up too much space in our lives. I help you reclaim the other aspects that have been overshadowed.
Milene says "it is magical to see physicians reclaim their power".
Dr. Jacqueline Holm-Jhass
Dr. Jacqueline Holm-Jhass made it through her first 13 years as a Family Physician before she lost her passion, thinking she had to leave medicine. But within 12 months, empowered by the transformative benefits of coaching, Dr. Holm-Jhass was back to loving it, more than ever.
As a certified life coach through the Life Coach School, with an Advanced Deep Dive Certification and Mastering Emotions training, Jacquie helps fellow Physicians reprioritize their time and energy so they can show up fully engaged, finding ease and joy in medicine and beyond!
Dr. Holm-Jhass is a Franco-Albertan, fluent in English and French, with enough Spanish to play some classroom bingo and a few Punjabi phrases to impress her in-laws.
When she is not helping Physicians find their inner rockstar, she spends time with her spouse and 2 kids, enjoying music, reading, movies, hiking, dancing, and all the wonderful things that come with leaving work at work!
Is clinical medicine sustainable?
This is something I hear Physician's question every day.
I understand this question fully.
I was that doctor who loved the patients BUT HATED the job.
I wanted to leave Medicine due to the charting, paperwork, patient entitlement and administration expectations.
It looked like 15 years in clinical practice and still unable to tell my family what time I could be expected to be home. Heading home at 6pm, hours after the last patient left, knowing that I still had hours left to do after family activities simmered down for the night.
When I talk to clinicians I hear these same fears;
"Does it ever get any better...
Do I have to leave Medicine to make this hamster wheel stop?"
The "medical system" may or may not change, but you can't wait to find out.
You need help NOW, in the clinical environment that you work, with the patients you see, with the administration you work under.
Help is available for you right now, despite the system that you find yourself.
When a high percentage of Physicians are looking for an exit strategy, there's a problem.
This is a Physician Led Solution to the problem.
Helping You find YOUR self preserving solutions to the clinical day.
Clinical medicine feels unsustainable when;
*The clinical day spreads into the evening, weekend and holidays.
*You are feeling disrespected or burdened by more and more demands.
*You are required to get 5 stars on a Press Ganey score to unlock financial bonuses.
*You need to meet productivity units and face performance reviews if these are not met.
*You have loss of choice and autonomy in how you would choose to care for the patient.
*There are not enough Physicians for the population and therefore patients are not attached and fall through cracks if healthcare and Physicians feel responsible.
*When your job expectations, renumeration and position are at the mercy of government policy or employers.
As I worked through the challenges in my clinical day I realized that I couldn't wait around for the system to change, and I didn't have to.
It was and is possible to create sustainable clinical medicine within the clinical environment that you work right now.
That's what sustainable clinical medicine means to me - helping you find your solutions to create time for your life outside of Medicine, allowing you to stay in Clinical Medicine in a way that is sustainable for you.
Yes, it's possible and I can show you how!
I know you are doubting that change is possible,
and that your situation is unique.
That is why you need the Charting Coach!
With more than ONE THOUSAND HOURS of coaching a wide range of Physicians, specifically in the area of helping Physicians get home with their charting and paperwork done. I know that change is possible, even for you and I can help you.
Together we will work in any area of your clinical day that is stopping you getting home with today's work done.
That could include;
- Learning to Chart after every patient
- Emptying those Inboxes Same Day
- Working with learners
- Training your team
- Running on time
- Leading your clinical encounters
- Creating a clinical week that works for you
Yes I am a Physician and I am still in active clinical practice as a Rural Family Physician with a full panel of more than 1000 patients, Rural Emergency Department shifts and Hospital Inpatients; in addition to helping hundreds of Physicians create sustainable clinical medicine for themselves.
And there is still time in my life for exercise, sleep, family dinners at the table, cooking supper, relaxed evenings and fun excursions with the family.
THE GOOD NEWS? There is a solution.
It is POSSIBLE to get home with today's work done!
Are you ready to create sustainable clinical medicine for yourself and get home with today's work done!
