Day in the life of
Chief Medical Officer – Dr. Van Yu
My job is all about juggling — keeping different-sized balls and a couple of bowling pins in the air and spinning in the right direction. I serve multiple roles within the agency as a whole, as well as its healthcare affiliate Janian Medical Care and my patients.
In collaboration with other executive team members, I help shape policies and procedures to most effectively and safely offer services to our clients, many of whom are living with chronic psychiatric and medical conditions. For the past year, I have expanded my role in helping to make our services and spaces as safe as possible, from advising Human Resources about sick leave policies and advising programs about staffing patterns.
As the leader of our healthcare affiliate Janian Medical Care, I work to create and maintain a safe space for our staff, including our staff of psychiatrists, primary care providers, nurses, and medical assistants, to offer the best care we can to our patients. I support the people who do the myriad things required to keep such an operation functioning well—keeping the lights on, supplying medical suites, maintaining health records, managing funding, and caring for our patients.
I am also one of the psychiatrists who care for patients. This leads to very varied days when I’m typically working on different things. My schedule is a jigsaw puzzle and I’m constantly changing gears.
Pros and Cons
For me, the pros and the cons derive from the same thing—that my role encompasses so many different jobs. I enjoy the gear switching—needing a different skill and experience nearly every hour of the day to address the task of the hour. There’s never a dull moment. It’s incredibly gratifying to be able to help in so many different ways. This variety, although mostly fun, can be tiring at times. I do sometimes miss the days of getting in the groove of doing the same thing all day—working with patients. However, I feel very fortunate that my role is so multifaceted and that I’m capable of meeting all the different challenges effectively enough to help keep the organization functioning well and improving.
