Ep. 247 Scrubbing In with Dr. Mel Thacker

What do you do when you've achieved everything you set out to — and still feel empty? Dr. Mel Thacker did what most surgeons never do: she wrote it all down.

Scrubbing In: A Surgeon's Journey from Self-Doubt to Wholeness is Dr. Thacker's memoir about moral injury, imposter syndrome, panic attacks in the OR, physician devaluation, and the coaching tools that changed everything. In this episode of BOSS: Business of Surgery, Dr. Mel Thacker and host Dr. Amy Vertrees dig into the stories behind the book — and the deeper question underneath all of them: who are you when surgery is no longer the whole answer?

Dr. Thacker is an ENT surgeon, master coach, host of the Surgeons with Purpose podcast, and founder of the Empowered Surgeons Group. She left her private practice partnership in 2024, went to zero for six months, then found a one-week-per-month locums gig in Western Massachusetts — and discovered she had joy again. She now lives what she calls a mosaic career: surgery, coaching, keynote speaking, expert witness work, and writing.

In this episode: what moral injury actually looks like (fighting insurance companies for Budesonide approval is moral injury too, not just the catastrophic cases); why she was paid $254 for a six-hour life-saving airway on a Saturday; how Byron Katie's The Work dismantled the thought "they're gonna find me out"; why she no longer believes in villains — only lessons; and what it means to run toward the storm instead of away from it.

She also explains her three-pillar coaching framework: protect the asset, serve the patient, diversify your professional identity.

🎙️ Book: Scrubbing In (available on Amazon and melthackercoaching.com)
🎙️ Podcast: Surgeons with Purpose | Coaching: Empowered Surgeons Group
🌐 melthackercoaching.com | Host: Dr. Amy Vertrees | bosssurgery.com
⭐ If this episode helped you, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts.