“There’s this really cool rash!” is not a sentence common to most work environments.
But it fits perfectly in healthcare, and it is emblematic of the mentorship environment cultivated at Texas Children’s Pediatrics Braeswood in Houston.
Longtime colleagues Shannon Hayes, MD, and Beverly Lee, MD, work to embody the organization’s approach, which is centered around building on the knowledge gained with each generation of physicians. The practice provides mentorship to first- through fourth-year medical students as well as residents.
“Mentoring at Texas Children’s Pediatrics allows us to bridge generational gaps, as well as harness all the experience and knowledge that comes from years of work with children and families,” Sapna Singh, MD, Texas Children’s Pediatrics’ chief medical officer, told Becker’s. “It fosters clinical excellence through the exchange of best practices — inspiring resilience and allowing our younger physicians to navigate the growing complexities we face today in pediatric healthcare. The benefits to the physicians, both younger and older, are only superseded by how this helps patients overall due to the shared compassion and knowledge in care.”
Dr. Hayes is a regional physician leader for Texas Children’s Pediatrics. She leads eight of the 66 practices that make up Texas Children’s Pediatrics, which is marking its 30th year of operations in 2025. She has been with Braeswood since 2014.
Dr. Lee was a patient at Braeswood when she was a child. Dr. Hayes came to know her a few years later, when Dr. Lee was a first-year medical student and later as a resident.
“As she was nearing her finish date [as a resident], I was harassing my administration to make sure that I could hire her and she could join my practice, because that’s all I wanted, and she did,” Dr. Hayes told Becker’s. “And we’ve been working together for five years, and it’s been amazing.”
For her part, Dr. Lee was all-in from the outset.
“I remember just taking mental notes of everything she did: How she did a physical exam, how she spoke to patients and their families, anticipatory guidance, how to create that bond and trust with families,” Dr. Lee told Becker’s. “It’s really helpful now as partners and as colleagues, because we share a lot of patients. When I’m not available, my patients will see her. When she’s not available, her patients will see me. And it creates a good, seamless continuity of care, because we practice so similarly, and we know what each other are thinking.”
Leaning into the exciting aspects of medicine is important to both clinicians. That exuberance surfaces in ways that make perfect sense to their peers and their mentees, if not necessarily to those outside of medicine.
“When there’s a lot of learners, it’s like, ‘Hey, y’all come down to room 5. There’s this really cool rash! Or, ‘Let me let you listen to this really cool heart murmur,'” Dr. Hayes said. “That’s just contagious and fun, right? Because they all get excited about it, and then every level kind of tells the next one what to know about that specific finding.”
The colleagues have found that patients also appreciate physicians taking students and residents under their wing.
“It is hard when we have very busy, long days to think, ‘How can I even incorporate a medical student in this type of environment where patients need to be seen quickly and efficiently? But we like to show [students and residents] that it can be done,” Dr. Lee said. “And patients tend to love having an extra learner. They are an extra set of ears. They’re an extra set of eyes for us. They get to know our patients. And similarly to me and Dr. Hayes — I was here for eight years getting to know these patients, and so they have seen me grow up from medical student into being an attending now.”
Before medical residents and students can be a part of any of these conversations, they have to be willing to walk through the proverbial door. A report released in March found that only 21% of physicians would recommend a medical career to young people, and just 32% would choose the profession again.
Although the two pediatricians are not recruiters in any official capacity, Dr. Hayes strongly advocates for healthcare when opportunities arise.
“Anyone that says they don’t want to approach medicine these days because of the way medicine is or the problems in healthcare, I just think that maybe it’s not for them, because this is really a gift to be able to be a physician, and specifically to be a pediatrician,” Dr. Hayes said. “It’s like being a superstar without all the fame. I mean, you walk in every room and they’re like, ‘Dr Hayes!’ and they jump up in the air and come hug you. It feels like I’m a rock star every single day of my work. Even when I’m dealing with really difficult situations, I can walk in the next room and just be greeted with this great hug. And it’s such a meaningful career, and I just don’t think there’s anything like it, so I would never turn anyone away.”
Dr. Lee said she and her colleague make it a point to help mentees reach their goals.
“For a medical student, it may just be, ‘I need to learn the basics of pediatrics,’ and I’m helping them do that throughout their time here. It’s being mindful of, ‘Oh, they want to be able to diagnose strep throat.’ Well, let’s help you find a patient and walk you through that process,” Dr. Lee said. “And at the end of that two- or three-week rotation, they would be able to confidently say, ‘I know what to look for. I know how to diagnose it. I know what to do for treatment.’
“They want to feel at the end of their three years with us that they can launch into their own private practices and be attendings without training wheels. So seeing them progress as a first year, second year and third year and toward graduation, being able to do a patient visit from start to finish … makes us feel like our job is done, that we have done what they set out to do themselves.
“Sometimes the goal is more personal. We’ve had interns who come in as an open book. They’re interested in everything, and they’re confused. They don’t know what [specialty] they should go into, and sometimes it’s just spending time with them, asking them, ‘Well, what are your goals? Do you really, actually want to do GI, for example? And trying to figure out having that longitudinal perspective. Let me tell you, you’re only seeing it for four weeks as a resident, so you get a very skewed perspective on what it looks like to be an attending. But now that we’re kind of out and we’ve seen our friends do it day in and day out, [we can tell learners] ‘this is what your life would look like, not only as a physician, but as a mom and as a wife and as a friend. You’re going to work shifts, you’re going to work weekends, you’re going to do these things.'”
Both physicians stressed that education is a two-way street with respect to their mentees.
“Mentorship can often feel like we are giving ourselves to them, but they give just as much back to us,” Dr. Lee said. “We benefit from them each and every day that we have them. They are often the most up to date on evidence-based medicine, being in the hospital and getting all these lectures about what’s coming out.”
Equally important to providing high-quality clinical care is establishing trust with patients and their families. That goal takes on greater importance amid a landscape in which just 4 in 10 Americans trust physicians and hospitals, according to a study published in 2024 in JAMA. Dr. Hayes supports a kindness-driven strategy in that regard.
“We see them for 18 to 20 years of their life, and so many people come in by word of mouth, and they’re still a little skeptical. ‘My friend liked you, but I’m not sure you’re the right personality for me,’ or ‘I don’t know if I trust your medical judgment yet,” she said. “And then you work with them. And over time they come to love you, and they become very dependent on you, actually.”
Neither Dr. Lee nor Dr. Hayes would tell potential physicians that the profession is easy. Not that either has any regrets.
“I think for myself, thinking if I was that high school or college age student interested in pursuing medicine, I would remind them that this is a delayed-gratification road,” Dr. Lee said. “Medicine is a long journey, and it can be very hard and challenging at times, but in the end, it is extremely rewarding. There is not a career like it, especially us being in pediatrics, where you get to see healthy children flourish because of the integral role that you play in their lives.
“So it is worth it, but it is long and it is hard at times. I would say find a support system, whether that’s family or friends or peers that want to do it with you or mentors along the way. I think that having that support to remind you of why you’re doing it, and to help you along the way is extremely important to keep you on the road and the journey that is medicine.”
