Jillian Bybee, MD
PedsICU Intensivist, toddler mom, and coach juggling life and work. GME Wellness Director, speaker, & advocate for Mental Health and WomenInMedicine.
Writer and podcaster: humansleading.substack.com
humansleading.buzzsprout.com
- My dad died unexpectedly 10 days before Christmas last year, and grief has been a wild ride. If you’re experiencing grief (big or small) this holiday season or are just feeling rattled by the state of the world, I hope these lessons that I have learned this year help you feel seen and comforted.
- How do you care for yourself in the winter? If you aren’t sure what works for you, my 6 ingredients for wellbeing and a pile of links can help you get started. humansleading.substack.com/p/6-essentia...
- This post is a short reminder for all of the recovering perfectionists out there (*raises hand*). If you find your perfectionism rearing its head as we approach the holidays, this one is for you. humansleading.substack.com/p/you-dont-h... #PedsICU #MedSky #Perfectionism
- Happy to have just made my first donation after a long day in the #PedsICU. Let’s go #KidVengers! #HCWvsHunger
- Ok #Kidvengers (+ other #HCWvsHunger teams), are we really going to let #DiagnoseAndTreats run away w the crystal apple?! I don’t think so, though still waiting on possible #ChaosGrenade 🤔 @swilua.bsky.social @kcpeddr.bsky.social @boysek.bsky.social @navsaria.bsky.social @paigeperriello.bsky.social
- Joy is a key ingredient for a satisfying life. And cultivating it allows us to resist and persist through difficult times. You can learn how to create more joy in your life in this week’s post. #PedsICU #MedSky open.substack.com/pub/humansle...
- Our phones can be helpful tools. But they can also be a barrier between us and our real lives. This week, I explore my own relationship with my phone and my desire to spend less time on it. If you’re looking to do the same, the reflection questions I provide can help you get started.
- Reposted by Jillian Bybee, MDI miss the days of the tweetiatrician. We built so much community under the shared purpose of sharing evidence based child health information. The methods and platforms may have changed but that doesn’t mean we can’t keep going. Follow pediatricians. Share our messages. www.tiktok.com/t/ZTMjGmB2j/
- Reposted by Jillian Bybee, MDOne of the new ACIP goons is advocating for randomized, placebo controlled trials of the MMR vaccine. This would be like now randomizing seat belts for kids or car seats for infants. It’s so laughable that people this stupid are in charge of our health.
- Reposted by Jillian Bybee, MDBy decreasing vaccine access and encouraging vaccine mistrust, they drive down vaccine uptake. And then point towards low vaccine uptake as a reason to not have the vaccines anymore.
- What do you need for your wellbeing this Fall? I’ve learned that knowing your essentials helps you take care of yourself even when times are busy or stressful. Today, I’m sharing a few tips to help you get started. #PedsICU #MedSky open.substack.com/pub/humansle...
- Today I delivered my favorite career talk of the year during the Business of Medicine rotation at Corewell Health West. It's my favorite because it brings me joy to have the opportunity to encourage the trainees to think broadly about what their careers and lives will look like in the future.
- What does success look like? What brings them joy? Why do they do what they do? We get to decide what successful careers look like for ourselves. And sharing the lessons I've learned the hard way is part of what success looks like for me.
- Having a toolkit won’t save us from hard times, but it will make it a lot easier to navigate them. Learn to build yours with the 7 strategies in this podcast. #PedsICU #MedSky open.substack.com/pub/humansle...
- Doing too much? Feel like you can’t stop because the world will fall apart? Try doing just 1% less. #PedsICU #Womeninmedicine #MedSky humansleading.substack.com/p/the-world-...
- Reposted by Jillian Bybee, MDResistance www.reuters.com/business/hea...
- Resilience doesn’t mean not being affected by adversity. It means knowing that there will be times that we need help and giving ourselves permission to seek and accept that help. No one who experiences adversity is truly unaffected by it. #PedsICU #MedSky
- We know that free food isn’t the solution to physician burnout. And yet creating intentional spaces where people can connect and feel valued is part of creating a culture of wellbeing. Happy to have done a little of this for our residents and fellows this morning. #MedEd #MedSky
- I’m officially “conference mom.” (Read: old 😂) If you are a resident at a conference, I will come ask you about your project, cheer you on, and ask if you need a picture to send to your actual parent or support system. We can all take actions to create a culture of support in medicine. #MedSky
- Being resilient doesn’t mean not being affected by adversity. It means that you seek and accept help when you need it. And it means building organizational resilience by creating a systemic culture that supports people instead of shaming them for being human. #MedSky #PedsICU #MedEd
- As with most things that matter, my career as the Medical Director of Wellness for GME didn’t happen overnight. In this short ep, I share a story of how confronting toxic culture in medicine pushed me to become a fierce advocate by changing the systems in which we work one small step at a time.
- Reposted by Jillian Bybee, MDToday at 4pm ET!
- As a #PedsICU physician, I’m reminded every day that life can change in an instant. Don’t take it for granted.
- You don’t have limited access to e-mail when you’re out of office. You have a hard time setting boundaries when you’re away because the culture teaches us that we need to be available 24/7. You can learn how to prioritize your time away with the 3 steps I outline below in this week's post.
- “On Not Betraying Our Trainees, Especially Now” I won an Extraordinary Achievement Award from the Critical Care Assembly last month The @atscommunity.bsky.social premier journal @atsblueeditor.bsky.social TODAY published the remarks I made on that occasion www.atsjournals.org/doi/10.1164/...
- Reposted by Jillian Bybee, MDThis is good and important www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...
- Fellowship application time Here is your yearly reminder that the procedure for which you must be most adept in order to be a successful #PCCM physician is the difficult conversation Developing skills in having hard conversations will make your life better in all of its facets
- It was a great morning to welcome over 100 new residents to Corewell Health West! I loved sharing the programming we have available to support their individual wellbeing and how we are changing the system to make medicine a better place to work. #wellness is about doing both. #MedEd #MedSky
- Joy is a practice. It doesn’t require the absence of difficult experiences in order to feel it. But it does require being intentional about noticing it. You can get started here 👇 #PedsICU #MedSky #Selfcare substack.com/home/post/p-...
- When I realized that I didn’t feel up to carrying out my original plan for this week, I decided to listen to my need for rest and settled on this short post instead. If you’re feeling tired or overwhelmed right now, you can find links here to help you get the rest you need👇 #MedSky #PedsICU
- Reposted by Jillian Bybee, MDThere are thousands of residents who are supposed to start in less than a month in hospitals across the US who cannot enter the country. There is going to be a major staffing crisis across the country but especially in rural and urban hospitals than rely on international medical graduates. #MedSky
- Having a leadership title doesn’t make you a good leader. So much of my job as “wellness” director is working with leaders to help them understand how their level of wellbeing and their behavior directly impacts their team members’ performance and wellbeing. #PedsICU #MedSky
- Today I was pleased to share my “Toolkit for hard days” during our Wellness Wednesday session at work. I created this toolkit originally for my newsletter, which you can find 👇 humansleading.substack.com/p/you-cant-t... #PedsICU #MedSky
- The inner critic gets loud when life feels uncertain or when you don’t do something you feel you’re “supposed” to do. But shame isn’t the way to quiet them. Kindness is. You can learn how to handle your inner critic without trying to destroy it 👇 #PedsICU #MedSky #Womeninmedicine
- 1/3 Mental illness and occupational distress is common among physicians-in-training (and beyond!). When I was a #PedsICU fellow, I informally diagnosed myself with depression before seeking therapy and medication. No one around me noticed. #MedSky
- Reposted by Jillian Bybee, MDBreaking news: The United States faces millions of measles cases over the next 25 years if vaccination rates for the disease drop 10 percent, according to new research published Thursday.
- I’m not sure why we’d ask people to have more children when we don’t plan to support them after the children arrive.
- Report: Trump administration’s Head Start cuts would slash benefits for thousands in Michigan heartlandsignal.com/2025/04/23/r...
- Do you start thinking of all the things that could go wrong when things start going well in your life? You aren’t alone. It’s easy to do when you see bad things happening every day. But it’s possible to still feel joy. Find out how in this week’s post: #PedsICU #MedSky
- Other than telling my own story about burnout & depression, I’ve never found a better way to get an audience of physicians to open up to me than to ask them what they say to other people when they’re asked, “How are you?” Reminder: fine is not a feeling, and living the dream is 🚩 #PedsICU #MedSky
- Are you a recovering perfectionist? It’s a journey, not a destination. If you’re looking for guidance as you navigate your own life, you can find it here as I share my takeaways from the first week of my Gifts of Imperfection re-read. #PedsICU #Womeninmedicine substack.com/home/post/p-...
- Is well-being possible as a #PedsICU physician? Yes… but it requires redefining the word, bringing change to our workplaces, consistent daily effort, & learning to ask for and accept help. I’m happy to share a snippet of what I’ve learned in the past 8 years with our fellows today. #MedSky
- Are you proud of being the helper, not the one who needs help? 😬 Come get called out with me and learn how letting go of being everything to everyone can lead to a more peaceful life on my Gifts of Imperfection 4-week read-along. humansleading.substack.com/p/learning-t...
- Is your inner critic loud? Mine is. And it has been especially loud recently about the ways I fell short in the past few months. Today, I’m sharing how I’m (re)learning how to embrace my limitations and offering an invitation for you to join me on this path over the next month. #PedsICU #MedSky
- I’m not great at celebrating myself, but today I am: 400+ people now subscribe to my publication, Humans Leading. As something I continue to do off the side of my desk, this is mind-boggling to me. I love helping people live less stressed, more satisfying lives. You can get started for yourself 👇
- Reposted by Jillian Bybee, MDNice review article from Andy Miller and Alex Rotta. #PedsICU @ventlib4kids.bsky.social pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40152899/
- Measles has arrived in Western Michigan now as well.
- Coaching is an evidence-based intervention for wellbeing and professional development. I loved presented the data, my own experience with coaching, and teaching 3 practical coaching skills to the audience at Pediatric Grand Rounds this morning. #PedsICU #MedSky #Coaching
- Here’s your Sunday reminder: you don’t have to be the best. You just have to do what you can. It’s easy to burn ourselves out in our quests for perfection. So, this week, why not try committing to imperfect action on one thing and seeing how much less pressure that puts on you? #PedsICU #MedSky
