Doctor BossMom

Standing by at a patients’ bedside with friendsand family around is a familiar position for manydoctors. It takes strength, discipline and empathy.But after a while, it becomes relatively easy to setaside personal feelings and to maintain composureand perspective despite the circumstances thatprevail. “You learn to channel your emotionalenergy to the right place.” Every good doctor livesthis. Every successful business owner knows this.And every mother feels this.

Dr. Karen Phillips is a well of wisdom and knowledge. Not necessarily

because she’s simply a ‘bright’ girl, but because she’s chosen to learn from everything that life offers to teach. “I continue to learn every day from medicine, from business and now, from being a mother.” She’s a decorated and accomplished Consultant Physician, whose other ‘day jobs’ as an Associate Lecturer at the University of the West Indies and partner at Meridian Medical Specialists, only add fuel to her energy to run her ‘passion business’ as the co-founder and Medical Director at Revamp Comprehensive Rehabilitation Centre.

“Dr. Phillips is a giver-of-self and a lover-of-life. It’s as if she’s pre-disposed to giving before receiving. I honestly believe that this is what gives her her ‘Energizer Bunny’ energy to be able to constantly pour into others,” shares Dr. Claudine Lewis. Her colleagues speak highly of her as if still in awe of the woman, the doctor and the friend that they have known for years.

If you’re not one of her many scheduled appointments, you’d be lucky to find Karen Phillips with a few moments to spare on any given day during the week. To say that she’s busy is an understatement. But somehow in the process of divvying up her time, she manages to attend to patients across all major hospitals in Kingston, tend to her private practice, meet with friends for lunch, do school projects with her son, attend to her mother, be on time for yoga class and catch up on the latest Netflix movie.

If balance was a person…

Doctor Boss Mom

revamprehabjamaica.com

When Doctor Phillips received her first salary as a young doctor in late 1990s, she thought to herself.... ‘and I get paid for this!?’ She was soon living her passion, having known that medicine was her calling from her early twenties.

Her friends and family all knew it too. Before she became an intern, Karen was the caregiver for all in her purview. If you felt ill, you called Karen. If your Aunt felt ill, you called Karen. If your grandfather felt ill…. you guessed it. And Karen always answered. She was never too busy, and she was never too far away. Today, the only things that would have changed are her credentials.

36 | BOSS MOM MAGAZINE | THINK BIG 2021

.

THINK BIG 2021| BOSS MOM MAGAZINE | 37

.

"...I AM EXCITED BY THE JOURNEYBACK TO WELLNESS, AND I’M DRIVEN TOHELP EVERY SINGLE PATIENT THROUGH THEIR PERSONAL REBIRTH TO BEING REVAMPED."

Though she is not the one to brag, Dr. Phillips holds a Doctor of Medicine in International Medicine, a Master of Sciences in Diabetes and Endocrinology, Certification in Stroke Rehabilitation, and she is also a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (Edinburgh).

Her love and appreciation for rehabilitation began after working primarily with stroke patients. She saw lives changed in indescribable ways after receiving treatment, and as life would

have it, this became even more personal for her after her mother and best friend, suffered a life-changing stroke. Like many other businesses, Revamp Comprehensive Rehabilitation Center was born out of a need. “People get sick all the time. It’s a fact of life that we have limited control over. But I am excited by the journey back to wellness, and I’m driven to help every single patient through their personal rebirth to being revamped.”

38 | BOSS MOM MAGAZINE | THINK BIG 2021

Dr. Phillips speaks with Nurse Peterkin Revamp Comprehensive Rehabilitation Center.

Photo by Leo Hudson

.

At the time of its birth,

Revamp Comprehensive Rehabilitation Center was the first rehabilitation solution in the Caribbean to offer comprehensive Neurorehabilitation under one roof. Dr. Phillips built a state-of-the-art facility that offered first world amenities, a trained medical team of the highest level and most importantly, life-changing transformative care. Today, 12 years on, Revamp offers both out and inpatient neurorehabilitative, orthopedic and spinal rehabilitative care. “It warms our hearts to witness the lives changed and the families impacted by the care we offer.”

As an entrepreneur, she is constantly reminded by her Action Coach that while rehabilitation at Revamp is her ‘passion business’ it is ALSO a real business. Karen sees her role as a businesswoman as a

reminder that a big part of her responsibility as a company and as an employer, is providing a livelihood for her staff as we all play our role in nation-building. This is no small feat she has learned. “Medicine is my comfort zone and something I spend a lot of time honing. But for some reason I thought running a business would have been second nature! I have come to appreciate that this is not true,” she laughs. “I think I’ve made every mistake there is to make in business! Entrepreneurship is not my training. I kind of went into business thinking that intelligence would take me through. Ha, was I wrong! People go to school for this for a reason.

Like a true lifelong learner, Karen has armed herself with the necessary tools, she has embraced the challenge and is learning from her mistakes. “Most importantly I’ve equipped myself with the necessary tools.

I have very good friends who guide me, I read a lot and I have a Coach. But most importantly, I believe in what I do.” She suggests to anyone going into business - whether it’s a passion project or not - get solid advice. Her default action when she falls short of her own high expectations? “I wheel and come again!” She laughs. Karen laughs a lot and believes that it truly is medicine for the soul.

To her staff and patients, she’s a confidante and trusted medical practitioner. But back at home, to her 6-year-old son Theo, she’s just ‘Mummy’. He has no clue how many lives she saved or how many times she has restored hope and dreams to individuals and families alike. Theo only knows that when Dr. Mummy comes through the doors, it’s his time to shine. And shine he does.

Photo by Leo Hudson

40 | BOSS MOM MAGAZINE | THINK BIG 2021

"“MY SUPPORT NETWORK OF FAMILY AND FRIENDS HELP ME TO MAINTAIN STABILITY..."

Does brilliance run in the family? “He’s quick witted, incredibly independent, and quite the comic and I wake up each day wondering how I got so lucky.” Dr. Phillips says she can’t take all the credit for herself in raising Theo to be so balanced. She shares her saving grace, and recommends to every BossMom to exercise, eat well and seek help from your village whenever you can. “My support network of family and friends help me to maintain stability at home, while I’m off working to do the same for my patients. I work very hard, and I know that I can’t expect to give Theo my best and to be a good mother to him, if I’m not mentally and physically prepared to parent.” Does Karen ever have days when she feels like she’s not doing well at Dr. Mom? “For sure I have those days. There really aren’t enough hours in the days to do it all. I accept that I can’t do it all and rely heavily on my network.”

Juggling medicine and business occupies her time and satisfies her professional goals, but her work life pales in comparison to what she describes as her most rewarding role - mothering Theo. This job is life; it’s intuition, it’s passion, it’s caring and it is understanding love. “I have been blessed with the most beautiful soul who allows me to ‘mess up’, yet comforts me with incessant hugs. His love is palpable and paves the way for me to fulfill this most important job of all. He really keeps my heart smiling. My own journey has made me so appreciative of the bond that is mother and child. And unlike medicine and business, there really is no blueprint.”

42 | BOSS MOM MAGAZINE | THINK BIG 2021