Spotlight on Joy: A Conversation with Carolyn Glover, PA-C

Cardiac Surgery PA at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Founding Member of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta APP Wellness Committee

Forged by Resilience

Tell us a little bit about yourself and what brought you to physician/APP well-being.

As a PA with 14 years’ experience in the high-intensity world of congenital cardiac surgery at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, I have seen firsthand how the pressure of caring for high-risk patients can lead to burnout. My path to APP wellness was forged through personal necessity. A few years ago, I hit a crossroads: I was balancing a demanding career as a surgical PA with a divorce, caregiving for my ill mother and raising two young children. That experience forced me to redefine what ‘resilience’ actually looks like. I helped start the APP wellness committee at CHOA and am excited to advocate for a culture where provider well-being is treated with the same clinical rigor as the care we give our patients.

We're All in This Together

Has there been a figure or experience in your life that compelled you to become a part of the well-being conversation?

While my clinical training taught me how to care for patients, it was close friends who taught me how to care for myself. During my hardest days-balancing the intensity of the job with being a mom, navigating a divorce, and the weight of caregiving at home-I was fortunate to have a circle that didn’t just offer sympathy, but actually walked the path with me. One friend in particular, who is skilled in meditation and gratitude, helped me realize that well-being doesn’t require a total life overhaul. She showed me how to find ‘micro-moments’ of light on the darkest days. That experience compelled me to join the conversation because I realized that for APPs, peer-to-peer support and accessible, daily practices are often the most effective tools.

Making a Seat at the Table

What is one project or initiative you’ve been a part of that has made a positive impact in your healthcare circles? What were some of the challenges you had to overcome?

When I first sought to get involved in wellness, I hit a significant roadblock. I approached our Physician Wellness Director, only to be told that their resources didn't technically extend to APPs; I was pointed toward the general system-wide resources instead. While those are valuable, they often lack the clinical nuance that an APP needs.

Instead of accepting that gap, I joined a nascent group of like-minded colleagues to found our APP Wellness Committee. We didn't want to just 'talk' about wellness; we wanted to operationalize it. We focused on a two-pronged strategy:

• Top-Down: Equipping managers with resources to facilitate wellness conversations within their teams.

• Grassroots: Establishing a network of Wellness Ambassadors who meet quarterly to share best practices and bring tangible tools back to their specific units.

The challenge was overcoming the 'separate but equal' mindset of hospital resources, but the impact has been a dedicated space where APPs feel their unique pressures are being addressed.

Wellness as a Lifeline, Not a Luxury

What sentiment would you like to leave for those looking to enter the conversation on well-being?

I want to end with the thought that wellness is for everyone—even the skeptics. It can seem 'fluffy' until you're the one in the middle of a storm, balancing high-risk patients and high-stakes personal challenges.

In those moments, wellness is the only thing that stops the snowball effect from becoming an avalanche. I hope to help create a community where every provider, regardless of their career stage, has a place to turn for resources that actually work in the real world. Let’s stop treating well-being like a luxury and start treating it like the lifeline it is. Wellness is not an accessory to our clinical work; is a necessary part of the foundation of it.

Thank you to Rachel Swerdlin, DNP, APRN, CPNP-PC and Carolyn Glover, PA-C for their collaboration on this story. Children's Healthcare of Atlanta is an Organizational Member of the Coalition for Physician & APP Well-Being.