Category: Burnout

Resilience for Doctors – Bouncing back

Resilience is the latest buzzword,  especially in context of Mental Health for Doctors (#MH4Docs). But what does it really mean, and why is there such resentment against the term from some groups? Definition of Resilience (English Oxford Dictionary) Noun : The capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness. The ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity. In relation to Mental Health (American Psychological Association) : […]

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Mandatory Reporting – Protecting or Harming?

Mandatory reporting is a hot topic of the moment. The increased awareness on mental health for doctors, twitter campaigns #MH4Docs and #Socks4Docs, the loss of great doctors due to mental health issues – have all contributed to raising the debate again on mandatory reporting . At the recent Business for doctors conference, this was one of the main concerns for doctors attending the workshops on Burnout and the one on Wellness for […]

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#Socks4Docs – Mental Health of Doctors

Today June 1st is #Socks4Docs or #CrazySocks4Docs day. This is an idea to promote #MH4Docs This is an idea started by Dr Geoff Toogood @gdtoogood who was the first to suggest #CrazySocks4Docs. It was also promoted and expanded upon by Dr.Eric Levi who’s done some great blog posts recently discussing the mental health issues of doctors. This has taken off on Twitter, and a large number of doctors have taken up the […]

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Fear & Guilt Behind the Stethoscope

Despite the common perception of a white coat, stethoscope, fancy car, and smooth, calm intelligence – today’s doctor is mainly a walking ball of fear and guilt. What’s more he or she has been trained to be this way. As an Asian, the guilt trip was laid on early in life, along with a dash of fear. “If you don’t study, you will fail” … “all that we’ve sacrificed for […]

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Burnout in Doctors – are you Toast?

There is  increasing public perception and commentary that there are systemic failures in Doctors, and that they will or are making mistakes. Regulatory bodies, medical boards, and government try to combat this by looking at systems to identify those who may pose a risk to public safety. The markers that they use are often based around burnout – substance abuse, mental or physical health, increased medical errors, and reduced patient […]

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