A doctor, author and comedian asked the thousands of pediatricians at Saturday’s opening plenary session of the 2024 AAP National Conference & Exhibition to find the small thing that allows each of them to feel like a whole person amid the hardships that can come with the profession.
“Maybe it’s picking up the pen and finishing that short story that you’ve left for months, or even years,” said keynote speaker Seema Yasmin, M.D. “Maybe it’s returning to playing the bass, singing acapella — whatever that is, I want you to think about what is the thing that makes you feel like a whole person.”
For Dr. Yasmin, that thing is the “healing power” of making people laugh, which she did during her presentation that closed Saturday’s plenary.
The session began with music, first from a children’s choir singing the national anthem, then a recorded rendition of Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors” in multiple musical styles accompanied by dancers with jazz, hip-hop and salsa moves.
“We’re here to learn, network and grow as professionals, and over the next four days, we’ll meet at the intersection of Pediatrics Place and True Colors Boulevard,” said co-host Joanna Parga-Belinkie, M.D., FAAP, pointing to a street sign on stage against a vibrant community backdrop.
“This community space is the hub for ideas and open discussion,” said co-host David L. Hill, M.D., FAAP. “It’s a place where we can let our true colors shine.”
AAP President Benjamin D. Hoffman, M.D., FAAP, showed his true colors — the red, white and blue of an AAP-branded superhero shield — in an address that highlighted the heroism pediatricians display every day.
Dr. Yasmin acknowledged it’s not always easy to be that hero, noting that her medical career suffered from burnout before she had heard of the terms “compassion fatigue” or “moral injury.”
“It was 2010, we didn’t have chief wellness officers mandating wellness lectures, telling us to drink ashwagandha tea and to write a gratitude journal at night,” she said, inspiring laughter from the audience.
An Emmy-winning journalist who investigated infectious disease outbreaks for the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Yasmin also wrote a 2023 book on identifying misinformation, What the Fact? Finding the Truth in All the Noise, that provides evidence-based strategies for debunking lies, including a script to use in conversation.
“I have the script, I wrote that book, and yet all that advice goes out the window when I’m on the family WhatsApp group, which I think I’m blocked from now,” she said.
Comedy helped her bridge the gap between being both a doctor and a whole person, “the bridge I needed (for) thinking about how to relate to people, how to care fully for people, how to be a whole human with other human beings who I allow to be their full selves,” Dr. Yasmin said.
“This weekend, I want you to make sure that you fill your cup, you make a friend, you take time to connect with other people,” she said to the conference attendees. “You make time to connect with yourself, too … so that you can keep doing the incredibly important job that you have.”
