We’re setting out on a mission to make faculty and learners' lives less stressful this week on the Faculty Factory Podcast with our exciting first-time guest, Jessica Seaman, EdD.

Dr. Seaman serves as Assistant Professor of Medical Humanities, Co-Director of the Gold Track Curriculum, and Assistant Dean of Faculty Development at Creighton University School of Medicine in Phoenix.

How can we help learners avoid some of the worst consequences of chronic stress that can lead to deep-seated anxiety and depression?

As you’ll hear within this discussion, there are many strategies to explore, and one of the top approaches is to create psychologically safe spaces for learners at our academic institution. This encourages a proactive stance in the fight against the ill effects of chronic stress by offering a variety of support strategies.

As we learned in today’s show, there is a lot of forward-thinking work happening at Dr. Seaman’s institution (which, as we mention in the interview, has campuses in both Nebraska and Arizona), and compassion is built into its mission.

We must also remember, as we discussed in today’s episode, that rigidity can create more stress. None of these practices are set in stone; we must revisit them, assess their effectiveness, and strive to avoid complacency by adapting with the times, all for the betterment of our learners.

If you want to learn more about anything we discussed on this podcast, you can reach Dr. Seaman at: [email protected].

We’d also love to hear from you at the Faculty Factory Podcast: What are we doing well? Where are we missing the mark? Do you want to be a guest (or nominate a guest)? Make sure to send us a message through the Contact Us page of FacultyFactory.org: https://facultyfactory.org/contact-us/.