We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dr. Jennifer Dilts a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Dr. Jennifer, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
I remember wanting to be a doctor in elementary school. There weren’t doctors in my family, but I was just fascinated by hospitals and all that went on there. I read lots of novels that had doctors or nurses as the main characters. I also knew early on that I wanted to work with kids, so becoming a pediatrician seemed like the perfect fit for me. As my pediatrics career has evolved, I have really gravitated towards working with kids and teens with chronic pain, specifically migraine. Chronic pain is so hard. It’s poorly understood, and there aren’t quick fixes for it. Headache management feels like a puzzle. You meet kids and parents where they are, and try to understand all that’s going on in their lives, and how their pain is impacting them. You figure out what factors will help them the most: medications, reducing stress, getting more sleep, improving their diet and hydration. And when I see kids get back to living their lives: playing soccer, marching in band, dancing, whatever, it’s so gratifying!
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I’m a doctor at Bloom Pediatrics in Kansas City, Kansas. I provide headache care to kids and teens and acupuncture to people of all ages, including adults! My headache patients and their parents have direct access to me. This means that they can call and text me any time that they have questions or concerns, including in the evenings. There is no “middle man”. This close communication allows us to make quicker progress in managing headaches, and I’m able to keep my patients out of urgent care and the emergency department.
Additionally, I love providing community acupuncture. Up to 4 patients at a time receive acupuncture in zero gravity chairs in the lobby of Bloom Pediatrics. These sessions occur in evenings and on weekends, so that teens and adults don’t need to miss school or work to come to appointments. I offer these sessions at low cost on a sliding scale. Patients pay what they feel they can afford. Acupuncture is great at relieving pain and stress, and it’s so gratifying when people feel better after acupuncture!
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
I think that my curiosity makes me a good physician. I love learning about how the human body works, and I also just love hearing people’s stories. This career is fun because I’m always learning something new. The field of medicine is always evolving! You also need to be a good listener if you want to help patients. This takes time! You have to put aside everything else that’s happening and really focus on the person in front of you. Once you understand their goals, and how their illness or condition is affecting their life, you can partner with them to make things better. And finally, being a physician takes perseverance. It’s a long road: premedical studies in college, then medical school, then several years of residency, and then continuing to learn after formal training is finished. There will be times when you feel like you aren’t smart enough or you can’t keep going. Those are times to get a good night’s sleep and recharge, get a pep talk from a friend, and then just take it one step at a time. My advice to someone considering a career in medicine is to spend time in clinics and hospitals. Volunteer. Talk to physicians about what this job is really like. Do it because you love learning and you love people, because you find this whole thing fascinating.
Looking back over the past 12 months or so, what do you think has been your biggest area of improvement or growth?
I’ve been a physician for 21 years, and until several months ago I have always been employed by a hospital. As physicians we aren’t taught how to run a business. The inherent message in medical training is often that we need big medical systems to survive. However, these large corporations sometimes leave little room for physician autonomy and growth. That setting was no longer serving me, and I felt that I could provide better care to my patients in a different model. It’s been scary to leave my secure job that I loved for many years. However, it’s also been really exciting to do something new. I’m learning how to run a business. I even built my own website, which I never thought that I could do! I have three teen daughters, and I love that they are watching me try something new and take risks. I want them to know that if they see something that isn’t working, they can be the ones to change it. If the first thing that they try doesn’t work, they can try something else. And, to my fellow women docs out there, you can learn to run a business!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://drjenniferdilts.com/
- Instagram: drjenniferdilts
- Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/jennifer-dilts-40611b3a
Image Credits
Caroline Dilts
