Making Medicine Work For You
OB/GYN Dr. Staci Tanouye, known to many as Dr. Staci T, opens up about what it really means to hit rock bottom in medicine and fight your way back.
With honesty and heart, she names the cost of the culture we’ve inherited, one that rewards burnout and punishes boundaries, and reminds us that healing starts the moment we decide to choose ourselves.
This isn’t just a story of survival. It’s a reclaiming of self-worth and a call to all of us to do the same.
For those who want to hear Dr. Tanouye’s full story in her own words—and earn free CE/CME credits—this is available exclusively on the Learn at Pinnacle app. Download the Learn at Pinnacle app to watch the full talk, as well as other empowering content created by and for women in medicine.
Additional Topics Covered in the Full Talk:
A breakdown of Martin Covington’s Self-Worth Theory of Achievement Motivation
The neuroscience behind stress and chronic illness in high-pressure careers
Reflections on institutional betrayal and systemic reform in medicine
The evolution of Dr. Tanouye’s social media presence and its unexpected impact
How to spot and reframe internalized narratives of guilt, shame, and "not enoughness"
Now, let’s dive into the three most powerful takeaways from Dr. Tanouye’s story—and why they matter so deeply for women physicians today.
The Self-Worth Trap in Medicine
In the early moments of her talk, Dr. Staci Tanouye introduces a psychological framework that many in medicine—particularly women—may find uncomfortably familiar. Drawing from her background in educational theory, she explores Martin Covington’s Self-Worth Theory of Achievement Motivation, a model that illustrates how our sense of self is often tied directly to performance.
“Our performance as learners directly reflects our abilities or our competence, which then translates into how we value ourselves—our self-worth.”
This link between doing well and being worthy can be motivating—but also dangerously limiting, especially for those who fall into what Covington’s model calls the “over-strivers.” These are individuals who exhibit both a high fear of failure and an intense drive for success. It’s a quadrant many women physicians will recognize themselves in.
“Women, professional women, especially women in medicine, are the over-strivers. And what does that do to us? We over-perfect, we over-perform, and we carry this enormous anxiety that if we fail, we are not worthy.”
This isn’t just a mindset—it’s a systemic issue baked into the culture of medicine. The drive to constantly prove oneself, coupled with an industry that rarely allows for failure or rest, creates a self-perpetuating cycle of burnout, guilt, and physical decline.
Signs You Might Be Trapped in Over-Striving:
You feel intense guilt when taking time off—especially for health or family
You equate asking for help with weakness
You judge your value based on how much you do, not who you are
Your fear of “falling behind” overshadows your need for rest
You push through even when your body is clearly asking you to stop
The danger of this mindset isn’t theoretical. As Dr. Tanouye illustrates in the next section, when over-striving becomes a way of life, it can have severe consequences on physical and mental health.
But this awareness also creates an opportunity.
“We have to somehow find a way to divorce the idea that over-performance equals competence. Because it doesn’t.”
By naming the over-striver mentality and understanding its roots, women in medicine can begin to reclaim their own definition of success—one that includes wellness, joy, and rest as essential components.
When the System Fails Us
Dr. Tanouye’s story isn’t just a reflection on performance or mindset.
It’s a raw, gut-wrenching look at what happens when the system fails—over and over again.
What started as a shaky return to work postpartum became a spiral of missed diagnoses, climbing blood pressure, and unexplained neurological episodes.
By the time they found the rare tumor, it had almost taken her life.
“I literally let this job try to kill me—not just my spirit, but my physical self,” she says. “I was sleeping on a couch at work, not eating, not functioning.”
Despite experiencing severe symptoms—including thunderclap headaches, heart palpitations, and dangerously high blood pressure—she continued pushing through, haunted by the belief that not performing equaled failure. At one point, she recalls rolling through her OB floor in a wheelchair between patients, still trying to “show up.”
The turning point came when she collapsed on the side of the road en route to work. She was hospitalized at 27 weeks pregnant with her second child. Eventually, a rare paraganglioma (a tumor on her great vessels) was discovered—after months of symptoms and misdiagnoses.
“My blood pressure was 240/160. I was literally dying. And up until that point—I was still working.”
This experience starkly illustrates how the culture of medicine not only encourages overwork—it normalizes self-abandonment in the name of duty.
Systemic Failures That Amplify Personal Risk:
Postpartum expectations that penalize absence and reward self-sacrifice
Diagnostic bias, particularly in women—especially physicians—who minimize their own symptoms
Cultural conditioning that links worth to call schedules, clinic hours, and productivity
Lack of true support systems that allow for long-term health accommodations
Dr. Tanouye’s story is a wake-up call—not just to individuals, but to the systems and cultures in medicine that tolerate, reward, and perpetuate harm.
Yet her journey is also one of agency. When she finally emailed her partners to say she could no longer take call, she cried—not because she was sick, but because she felt she was letting people down.
“It wasn’t until I admitted that I physically could not continue that I realized how broken my relationship with work had become.”
This was not a failure. It was survival.
How to Redefine Success and Choose You
Out of crisis came clarity. After years of pushing herself to the brink, Dr. Tanouye made a radical—and necessary—decision: she quit her job without a backup plan.
“I walked into my office manager’s office and said, ‘I need to leave.’ She asked, ‘For the day?’ And I said, ‘No—forever.’”
What followed was a period of uncertainty, but also renewal. Through a combination of privilege, support, and courage, she transitioned into a GYN-only practice that allowed her to create a schedule that actually worked for her life. Along the way, she began building a social media presence not to “influence,” but to connect. What started as marketing for her new practice became a powerful platform for education, advocacy, and community.
“I realized I no longer needed to be paralyzed by this fear of failure. I could redefine what success looks like. I could achieve more by working less—and by working how I wanted to.”
But even as she redefined her own career, Dr. Tanouye is careful not to romanticize the journey.
“I’m not resilient or strong. I was forced into this. I had to make a choice. And that choice was to stop letting the system destroy me.”
She names what many are afraid to admit: the problem isn’t us—it’s the culture. When institutions tout “resilience training” or “self-care” without changing the structures that demand overwork, they are blaming the victim.
What Can We Do?
Start by choosing you: Revisit your list of priorities and make yourself number one
Define your own version of success: Not based on RVUs, but on joy, health, and impact
Name the systemic harm: Understand that it’s not your failure—it’s an institutional failure
Create boundaries that protect your worth: Even if the system doesn’t validate them
“We are replaceable to the system. But we are not replaceable to our families, our children, or ourselves.”
So much of medicine has conditioned women to believe that they must sacrifice everything to prove they belong. Dr. Tanouye’s message is a bold rejection of that lie.
You are worthy. You do not need to earn your right to rest.
You do not need to break to be valid.
You are allowed to choose you. And now is the time.
Conclusion: You Are the Priority
Dr. Staci Tanouye’s talk is more than a personal story—it’s a mirror held up to a profession that often confuses excellence with martyrdom. Through her experience, she invites women in medicine to consider three truths:
Over-striving is not sustainable—and it’s not your fault if it’s breaking you.
Systemic failure is real—and survival is not weakness, it’s wisdom.
You are worthy now—not after you prove yourself, not after you “bounce back,” but right now.
So what can you do now?
Revisit your top three priorities.
Put yourself at the top.
Reframe success—not as overwork, but as alignment with your values.
Explore flexible career paths that honor your needs.
Watch the full keynote for free at Learn at Pinnacle.
Your job does not define your worth.
Your system does not get to decide your value.
You do.
Choose you. Not because you have to—but because you can.
