Lessons from palliative care help leaders address
team member suffering to support their wellbeing – Jennifer K. Clark, MD

Apple Podcast | Spotify

Episode 91 | Duration: 35:54

Jennifer K. Clark, MD, is an allopathic physician who has practiced internal medicine, pediatrics, hospice and palliative medicine for more than 20 years. From the bedside to the boardroom and beyond, Jennifer has served to heal, educate and innovate to help relieve suffering and promote wellbeing. Currently, Jennifer volunteers as a medical liaison at Clarehouse, Tulsa’s home for dying people. She is also a board member for the Omega Home Network, a national non-profit membershiporganization that fosters the development of community homes for end-of-life care. Additionally, Jennifer is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Tulsa, where she co-directs the Designing Your Health curriculum. As an independent consultant, she also provides consultative services for individuals, organizations and communities seeking to close disparities and create environments for human flourishing. In addition to her traditional medical training, Jennifer’s healing practice is complemented with the contemplative disciplines of meditation, yoga and Ayurvedic lifestyle.

In this episode of Caring Greatly, Jennifer talks about how the core concepts of training from med-peds (internal medicine plus pediatrics) hospice and palliative care have informed her systems thinking and transformation approaches. She shares how palliative care challenges the notion in medicine that death is a failure and what can happen for team member wellbeing when leaders upend that assumption.

Jennifer also delves into the thought framework of her new book, Suffer, which looks at the core needs of human beings and the value of suffering. Much of the framework is through the lens of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. While suffering is what happens when core needs go unmet, understanding human suffering helps illuminate the fundamental nature of needs and how they play out for patients and for care team members. Finally, Jennifer helps leaders connect the dots between understanding suffering and the opportunities for empathy, innovation and thriving when team members’ needs for safety, wellbeing and belonging are met.

Related links

• Jennifer Clark’s TEDx talk: Suffering, wellbeing and the redefinition of health
• Caring Greatly podcast episode: The power of connected leadership
• Jennifer Clark's book: Suffer