--- title: "People First in Healthcare: Reflections on Suck It Up, Buttercup" description: Explore the documentary Suck It Up, Buttercup and its call for prioritizing people over profits in healthcare, urging leaders to embrace integrity and accountability. image: https://myworkbalance.com/hubfs/FREE%20Screening!.png --- [Skip to content](https://myworkbalance.com/blog/people-first-in-healthcare-reflections-on-suck-it-up-buttercup#main-content) [![My Work BALANCE logo](https://myworkbalance.com/hs-fs/hubfs/My%20Work%20BALANCE%20logo.png?width=1050&height=452&name=My%20Work%20BALANCE%20logo.png)](https://myworkbalance.com/) - [About](https://myworkbalance.com/about) - [Contact](https://myworkbalance.com/#contact) - Resources Show submenu for Resources - [Blog](https://myworkbalance.com/blog) - [Research Behind My Work BALANCE](https://myworkbalance.com/research) Open main navigation Close main navigation - [About](https://myworkbalance.com/about) - [Contact](https://myworkbalance.com/#contact) - Resources Show submenu for Resources - [Blog](https://myworkbalance.com/blog) - [Research Behind My Work BALANCE](https://myworkbalance.com/research) - [Sign In](https://app.myworkbalance.com/signin) [Sign In](https://app.myworkbalance.com/signin) Thu Oct 22 2026 # People First in Healthcare: Reflections on Suck It Up, Buttercup [Shari Morin-Degel](https://myworkbalance.com/blog/author/shari-morin-degel) Share: [facebook-f icon](http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=https://myworkbalance.com/blog/people-first-in-healthcare-reflections-on-suck-it-up-buttercup) [linkedin-in icon](http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https://myworkbalance.com/blog/people-first-in-healthcare-reflections-on-suck-it-up-buttercup) [envelope icon](mailto:?body=https://myworkbalance.com/blog/people-first-in-healthcare-reflections-on-suck-it-up-buttercup) [Share this page on Facebook](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https://myworkbalance.com/blog/people-first-in-healthcare-reflections-on-suck-it-up-buttercup) [Share this page on Facebook](http://pinterest.com/pin/create/link/?url=https://myworkbalance.com/blog/people-first-in-healthcare-reflections-on-suck-it-up-buttercup)   ## Is the Answer to America's massive Healthcare Problem Really Just a Simple Cliché? Last night I watched *Suck It Up, Buttercup*, and I am still sitting with it. I was awed by the people willing to share their greatest mistakes. I was also unsettled by what I took away from their stories. How could the lesson from something so devastating, so complicated, and so consequential sound so familiar? Put people first. People over money. Good old-fashioned integrity, from the top down. The [documentary](https://siubfilm.com/about-the-film/), Suck it Up, Buttercup, examines financial pressures, patient harm, and the experiences of people working within healthcare. What stayed with me was the human weight of those pressures and choices. ## The Courage to Acknowledge Harm I heard people share their stories. They described decisions with life-or-death consequences, shaped by what they believed was the priority at the time, making or saving money. Acknowledging harm does not undo it. Still, I found something profoundly important in their willingness to let others examine decisions they could never take back. Their honesty takes courage. What inspired me was not the mistakes themselves, but the willingness to face them openly and help others learn from them. To me, they are true heros and examples of how to live a life of integrity. It obviously hurt them to make those mistakes, and still hurts them today. But their courage and integrity continues to outweigh their fear and apathy. They are an inspiration. ## Living the Lesson But why is their example so hard to live in real life? With the holiday season quickly approaching, I was reminded that we see this familiar lesson played out over and over in those classic holiday films like *Scrooge*, *It's a Wonderful Life* and *Miracle on 34th Street*. Again and again, these stories ask us to consider what matters more, protecting wealth and power or using what we have to improve other people's lives.  We love these stories enough to watch them year after year. Yet how often do our own decisions reflect their lessons? Maybe I am naive, but I struggle with that disconnect. How can a principle feel so obvious on a screen and become so difficult to act on in a boardroom? When Patient and Employee Voices Guide Leadership The hospitals and clinics that appeared to be getting it right had something in common, leaders who allowed patients and frontline employees to influence executive decisions. That was my takeaway from watching. The people experiencing care and delivering it appeared to have a voice that could change what happened next. These leaders chose to make themselves accountable to the people they served and employed. They built relationships grounded in safety and honesty, and they honored feedback even when acting on it meant putting people ahead of higher profits.  ## What Putting People First Demands of Leaders Putting people first requires leaders to advocate for the people they serve, and make room for those people to speak for themselves. The disconnect appears to be when leaders believe their obligations to their bosses, boards and funders are the whole story. Which, is often the case in for profit business, but in healthcare, this has proven to be detrimental. In healthcare patients and employees live with the consequences of executive decisions. Their well-being must help define what success looks like. The film left me questioning what happens when financial priorities, including those of private equity owners, outweigh the needs of patients and the people caring for them.   Certainly, financial sustainability matters. But what I want to ask is, "What we are sustaining, for whom, and at whose expense?" ## Why a Familiar Lesson Still Demands Action Maybe putting people first sounds like a cliché because we have heard it so often while leaving its demands unexamined. Saying it is easy; it costs nothing. Following through requires real change, sometimes uncomfortable change, like revising a budget, sharing authority, or admitting a decision was wrong. I do not believe a familiar moral lesson is a complete solution to American healthcare. But after watching this film, I am struggling to imagine a solution worth pursuing that does not begin there. I hope healthcare leaders do not need a visit from ghosts, angels or Santa Clause to help act on what they already know is right. Maybe this holiday season, Suck It Up, Buttercup can offer the magical wake-up call, an invitation to turn a familiar lesson into difficult, necessary action.   Learn more about the film. It is now available for streaming at [https://siubfilm.com/](https://siubfilm.com/) If you lead an organization that serves people, I would love to hear about a recent decision that changed because you listened to patients or employees. What changed, and how did you make that possible?  [BurnoutPrevention](https://myworkbalance.com/blog/tag/burnoutprevention), [Occupational Wellbeing](https://myworkbalance.com/blog/tag/occupational-wellbeing), [Vicarious Trauma](https://myworkbalance.com/blog/tag/vicarious-trauma), [Secondary Traumatic Stress](https://myworkbalance.com/blog/tag/secondary-traumatic-stress), [Moral Injury](https://myworkbalance.com/blog/tag/moral-injury), [Compassion Fatigue](https://myworkbalance.com/blog/tag/compassion-fatigue), [Healthcare](https://myworkbalance.com/blog/tag/healthcare) [![](https://myworkbalance.com/hs-fs/hubfs/My%20Work%20BALANCE%20logo.png?width=1050&height=452&name=My%20Work%20BALANCE%20logo.png)](https://myworkbalance.com/) - [About](https://myworkbalance.com/about) - [Terms](https://myworkbalance.com/terms) - [Privacy Policy](https://myworkbalance.com/privacy) --- [facebook-f icon](https://www.facebook.com/sharimorindegellcpc) [linkedin-in icon](https://www.linkedin.com/company/myworkbalance) [instagram icon](https://www.instagram.com/shari.morindegel/) © Copyrights 2026 MyWorkBALANCE All rights reserved. ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Shari Morin-Degel", "url" : "https://myworkbalance.com/blog/author/shari-morin-degel" }, "dateModified" : "2026-10-22T22:55:37.082Z", "datePublished" : "2026-10-22T22:55:37.000Z", "headline" : "People First in Healthcare: Reflections on Suck It Up, Buttercup", "image" : [ "https://myworkbalance.com/hubfs/FREE%20Screening!.png" ], "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://myworkbalance.com/blog/people-first-in-healthcare-reflections-on-suck-it-up-buttercup", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "url" : "https://myworkbalance.com/hubfs/My%20Work%20BALANCE%20logo.png" }, "name" : "Enhance U, LLC" } } ```