Mental health and wellbeing for doctors is an important issue that is very near and dear to my heart. I have family and friends who sit everywhere along the spectrum of medical professionals - from medical students who are entering the healthcare system, right through to experienced specialist consultants who are either indoctrinated into the system or are trying to change the system.

No doctor, no human being, is immune to the relentless pressures and harsh realities of what it takes to be (and continue to be) a doctor in Australia and around the world. Their pursuit of clinical mastery and the significant sacrifices that they make behind the scenes in life to serve their work is enormous and often very invisible. They do all of this so that they can serve us, serve you and serve your communities.

CRAZYSOCKS4DOCS DAY BREAKFAST

I had the privilege of joining the Crazysocks4Docs Day Breakfast this morning where keynotes by Federal Minister for Health and Aged Care Mark Butler and Dr. Ben Bravery, author of ‘The Patient Doctor’, were followed by a panel discussion on ‘How Leadership Impacts the Health of Doctors and Medical Students’ with Dr. Ben Bravery, Professor Danny Liew (Physician, Dean of Medicine and Head of the Adelaide Medical School at the University of Adelaide), Dr. Sian Goodson (General Practitioner, Chair of the RACGP SA faculty and Director on the national RACGP Board), Ms. Isla Woidt (Workforce Wellbeing Partnerships Lead for South Australia’s Commission on Excellence and Innovation in Health) and Dr. Grainne Murray (Paediatric Rheumatologist at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital).

As someone who specialises in helping executives, leaders and doctors build their capabilities in the space of leadership, relationships, performance and wellbeing I was thrilled to hear the recognition and acknowledgement from all of the speakers about how intertwined and critical these four areas are to creating modern workplace systems and cultures within which doctors can thrive.

All of the speakers made numerous comments that held a strong resonance for me, however the three most impactful ones were when:

• Dr. Ben Bravery said his version of self-care was being able to practice with purpose, that it’s very hard to reengineer a hostile system so go hunting for the small things, and we need to teach and reward some of the humanistic things like kindness, compassion and vulnerability because there is a moral hazard in not doing so.

• Dr. Grainne Murray spoke about doctors being humans and not heros. We know we need more doctors so workforce planning and succession planning are critical; but in thinking about these things, there is a real need to balance out recruitment with retention. If we can prevent burnout and doctors leaving, then we wouldn’t need to recruit to the numbers are we are currently facing into. Keep doctors working and working well throughout their careers.

• Ms. Isla Woidt emphasised that we need to stop pulling people out of the river when they are drowning and instead go upstream to figure out what’s causing them to drown in the first place. Look for the issues, look at the organisational structure in place at the team and system levels, look at policies and governance mechanisms, look at capability around contemporary leadership models and look at whether we are looking at the right indicators and use data better to guide our actions. Putting people at the centre of what we do and cultivating human connections are critical.

Help us look after the wonderful human beings that look after us. The healthier they are, the healthier the healthcare system is and the healthier we in the community will be too.

Know a doctor?

Check in with them.

Be kindly and compassionately curious. See how they’re really doing. You reaching out might just be the thing that makes a difference to their life.

You are a doctor?

Let me help you master your leadership, relationships, performance and wellbeing.

Take a look around the Thriving in Healthcare & Medicine section of this website and get in touch to get started today.