Episode 11: The 3 AM Doctor with Dr. Laura Vater, Indiana University

In this episode with Dr. Laura Vater, a gastrointestinal oncologist at the Indiana University, writer, and advocate for patients and healthcare workers, we talk about what it means to care deeply for patients without losing yourself in the process. The title, “3 AM Doctor,” comes from a moment Dr. Vater describes during residency: standing in front of a patient in the middle of the night, exhausted, trying to survive the shift, and realizing she was not showing up as the physician she had hoped to become. We discuss compassion fatigue, motherhood in medicine, and how exhaustion can affect empathy. Dr. Vater also shares why physicians often mistake depletion for personal failure, and why building support systems before crisis occurs is essential.