Physician recommends creative thinking to achieve career ambitions, manage your practice

Key takeaways:

• Vivian Hernandez-Trujillo, MD, found a way to run her own practice and continue working with fellows.
• She advises young allergists be creative when figuring out how to achieve work-life balance.

Over her 20 years as an allergist, Vivian Hernandez-Trujillo, MD, created a combined allergy/immunology division and a fellowship program at her workplace and, when she craved more career control, she also opened her own practice.

When she wants to do something, Hernandez-Trujillo, allergy/immunology division director and fellowship program director at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital and owner of Allergy and Immunology Care Center of South Florida, spends time figuring out how to make it work for her. Her mantra, “think outside the box,” is a piece of advice she now gives to her fellows and other young allergists.

“You are the owner of your happiness,” Hernandez-Trujillo, who also serves as a Healio Women in Allergy Peer Perspective Board Member, said in an interview. “If you are not happy, you can make a change. You can do something different.”

Pediatrician to practice owner

Hernandez-Trujillo became interested in allergy and immunology during medical school while working with patients with HIV at Albany Medical Center in upstate New York.

Next, she completed her residency in pediatrics at Miami Children’s Hospital, now called Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, and her fellowship in allergy/immunology at University of Tennessee. After her fellowship, Hernandez-Trujillo returned to Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, where she was tasked with developing an allergy and immunology division at the hospital.

“I came back from fellowship and there was no joint division of allergy/immunology,” Hernandez-Trujillo told Healio. “There was an allergy clinic. So, I brought together the first allergy and immunology division back in 2004, and I was there until 2017.”

During her tenure, Hernandez-Trujillo was promoted to division director, and she established an allergy/immunology fellowship training program, which she considers her proudest achievement so far in her career.

“It took a lot of hard work and grit, but I stuck with it, and I am so proud,” Hernandez-Trujillo said. “As much as I love my patients, I think that teaching is where a lot of my joy comes from.”

In 2017, Hernandez-Trujillo said she felt like she was being stretched too thin running the allergy/immunology division and the fellowship program at the hospital, while still seeing her own patients at five different sites. The traveling took a toll on her, and Hernandez-Trujillo was craving an environment where she could make decisions about how many patients she sees and how long she can spend with each one. She thought about walking away entirely, but she did not want to give up teaching.

“I was pretty burnt out,” Hernandez-Trujillo said. “I had a lot to juggle, and instead of throwing in the towel and saying, ‘I’m done,’ I felt like I needed to see how I could make it work for me.”

Instead, she came up with an arrangement that met her needs and career goals: she would keep her leadership positions at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, but she would open her own clinic, Allergy and Immunology Care Center of South Florida, to work with her patients on her terms.

“Overall, it has been better for everybody,” Hernandez-Trujillo said. “It has been better for me, for my family and for my patients as well.”

‘Every teaching opportunity is a learning opportunity’

Hernandez-Trujillo has two fellows training at a time at her clinic, which has given her the chance to mentor young women allergists.

“We are seeing increasing numbers of women in the medical workforce, and the majority of my fellows have been women,” she said. “It has been a great opportunity to work with young women who are passionate about allergy/immunology.”

One of her favorite methods of teaching is taking her trainees for a short walk outside, which allows them to talk about anything they want to. She said walks improve her and her trainees’ well-being by allowing them to take a break and feel more refreshed when they return to the clinic.

“I also use it as a teaching opportunity,” Hernandez-Trujillo said. “We can look at the different trees in the area and the different pollens.”

Part of being a mentor also requires being open to your mentees’ ideas, Hernandez-Trujillo said. That was a piece of advice she received from one of her mentors: every teaching opportunity is also a learning opportunity.

“It takes a village to get where you are — you never get there completely on your own,” Hernandez-Trujillo said. “I am eternally grateful for all of my mentors, and I think that is one of the reasons why they inspire me to want to give back and teach.”

‘Think outside the box’

Before she decided to open her own clinic, Hernandez-Trujillo had to think about an arrangement that would allow her to continue teaching while being able to manage her own caseload. Now, she advises other women physicians to get creative to get what they need out of their career.

“I like to talk about thinking outside the box,” she said. “If you are passionate about something, but a position does not exist yet, then you need to figure out how to create it.”

Hernandez-Trujillo applies creative thinking to her practice management as well. She tries to be flexible with her staff to allow them to attend to their obligations outside of work such as caring for children, parents or pets, or other aspects of their lives they feel are important.

“I think we have to recognize that work-life balance is important for everyone, and we need to meet people in the middle,” Hernandez-Trujillo said. “If a staff member asked me for something that is not outrageous, I would need a good reason to say no.”

While she gives her staff grace when they need it, Hernandez-Trujillo said one of the most important lessons she learned was that she does not have to be perfect. She may strive to give 100% at work and at home, but sometimes that is not possible.

“When I had my twin girls, my grandmother told me, ‘You are no longer in control,’ and she was right,” Hernandez-Trujillo said. “The reality is: It is OK if you are not 100% in every single setting. You can still do an amazing job, and you need to be happy with that.”

For more information:

Vivian Hernandez-Trujillo, MD, can be reached at office@sflallergy.com.