The BMJ has long championed the wellbeing of doctors, both for their own sake and the sake of their patients. Covid-19 has made the campaign for support for doctors’ wellbeing even more urgent.
We have pulled together a selection of articles and podcasts relevant to doctors’ wellbeing which we hope will offer support to individuals and organisations.
Cat Chatfield and Abi Rimmer are the co-leads of The BMJ Wellbeing work. You can contact them via Twitter on @drcatchatfield and @abi_rimmer or please join The BMJ Wellbeing group on Facebook
Doctors' wellbeing is a key priority for The BMJ. You can find a range of content and resources to support wellbeing below.
Covid-19
• We need time and space to grieve during covid-19
• Covid-19—will this second phase be harder than the first?
• Covid fatigue is taking an enormous toll on healthcare workers
• The long term mental health impact of covid-19 must not be ignored
• Covid fatigue is taking an enormous toll on healthcare workers
• Adeline Goss: When it’s dangerous to become a doctor
• From moral injury to mental illness: we must protect the wellbeing of frontline covid-19 staff
• Balint groups could be one way to prevent burnout during covid-19
• #HowYouDoing? Promoting and protecting wellbeing during an unprecedented crisis
• Utpal Sandesara: We need to protect the most vulnerable healthcare workers
• The healing garden lost to corporate healthcare
• Occurrence, prevention, and management of the psychological effects of emerging virus outbreaks on healthcare workers: rapid review and meta-analysis
• What organisations around the world are doing to help improve doctors’ wellbeing
• Steven Chau: Who will heal the healers? The psychological aftermath of covid-19
• How can we keep a cool head and warm heart in the face of covid-19?
• Covid-19: channelling our emotions during the current crisis
• Covid-19: Junior doctors are worried about their physical and mental health
• Love in the time of corona: putting the health and wellbeing of the healthcare workforce at the heart of the pandemic response
• Extraordinary times: coping psychologically through the impact of covid-19
• How can I feel less isolated from colleagues?
• Junior doctors are worried about their physical and mental health
• How can I keep calm during self-isolation?
• Managing mental health challenges faced by healthcare workers during covid-19 pandemic
• We each have a professional responsibility to be civil and show respect and kindness for others at all times
• Helen Salisbury: Fear in the time of covid
• How can I cope with redeployment?
• Looking after doctors’ mental wellbeing during the covid-19 pandemic
• Coping through covid-19: advice for clinicians and leaders
• Doctors’ wellbeing: self care during the covid-19 pandemic
Podcasts
• Wellbeing – how to write a wellbeing prescription
• Wellbeing – how to deal with the post-emergency crash
• Wellbeing – how one junior doctor found a way to support frontline staff
• Wellbeing – coping with Covid fatigue
• Advice from military medic to frontline clinicians
• Telehealth in secondary care
• Some advice on working in PPE
• Look after yourself during covid-19
• Organisational kindness during covid-19
Suicide
• Clare Gerada: Awareness of suicide is important, but more vital are formalised measures to prevent it
• Amandip Sidhu: Doctors are dying from stigma
• Julian Warshafsky: how this doctor died and what it tells us about the system that failed him
• Suicides among junior doctors in the NHS
• In memoriam—doctors who have died by suicide or accidental death
• The complexity of physician suicide
Fatigue and Sleep
• Fatigue and risk - are train drivers safer than doctors?
• Should doctors work 24 hour shifts?
• "Going the extra mile" endangers doctors, patients, and the NHS
• Optimising sleep for night shifts
Resilience and Burnout
• Resilience: Five minutes with . . . Nicola McKinley
• Ensuring our future doctors are resilient
• Burnout among doctors
• When "resilience" becomes a dirty word
• Greta McLachlan: Please put your oxygen mask on first before helping others
• Peter Brindley and Matt Morgan: Burnout in healthcare workers—are we surprised?
Unprofessional behaviour
• Confronting unprofessional behaviour in medicine
• I'm being bullied by a colleague: what should I do?
• Bullying in the workplace: almost 40% of doctors think it is a problem, BMA finds
• NHS staff get new measures to tackle violence in the workplace
• Scottish health secretary orders independent inquiry into bullying culture at NHS Highland
Emotional wellbeing
• Jenny Firth-Cozens: What I learnt from studying doctors’ mental health over 20 years
• Mei Wen: To grieve is to maintain empathy
• Doctors’ wellbeing—learning from the past can help improve the future
• Moral Distress in hospital doctors
• When doctors need treatment: an anthropological approach to why doctors make bad patients
Working environment
• Walking in each other’s kingdom: A GP-consultant exchange scheme
• Workplace gyms and canteens should suit doctors’ working patterns, says BMA report
• Edward Ridyard: Charging for hospital car parking risks demoralising the NHS workforce
• Why junior doctors need more autonomy
Student
• Improving student mental wellbeing
• Medical school exams—how good is “good enough”?
• Companionship and conversation—bringing pedagogy to medical school
• Podcast: New Year resolutions
• Podcast: Anxiety
#giveusabreak campaign
In response to the rising prevalence of burnout, in support of the work done by many other organisations, and following discussions with our wellbeing advisory board, The BMJ is launching a campaign calling for doctors to be able to take the breaks that they need for their wellbeing and for patient safety.
This isn’t a new idea. Medical organisations, trade unions, and royal colleges have campaigned on this issue in the past and continue to do so. However, the problem persists and may be getting worse. We will bring these organisations together, along with other stakeholders such as employer and patient organisations, in a united effort to change systems, working practices, and culture to ensure that doctors get the breaks they need.
You can take part in the campaign by sharing your examples of where things are changing for the better or where more work needs to be done through social media using #giveusabreak.
• “Going the extra mile” endangers doctors, patients, and NHS
• Fatigue and risk: are train drivers safer than doctors?
• Optimising sleep for night shifts
• Should doctors work 24 hour shifts?
• Workplace gyms and canteens should suit doctors’ working patterns, says BMA report
Advisory Board
We have invited a group of international experts to contribute to our work on well-being and help us to identify priorities.
Alice Hartley
Urology Trainee in North-East England and chair of RCSEd #LetsRemoveIt campaign
Chris Horn
GP, academic clinical fellow, Swansea University Medical School
Chris Turner
Consultant in emergency medicine in Coventry, co-founder "Civility Saves Lives"
Cristin Lind
Patient/family leader, QRC Stockholm Kvalitetsregistercentrum
Efi Panagopoulou
Associate professor of health psychology and communication in the Medical School of Thessaloniki
Faye Gishen
Palliative medicine physician and undergraduate medical educator at UCL Medical School
Jane Lemaire
Clinical Professor, Department of Medicine, at the University of Calgary, Canada. Vice Chair of Physician Wellness and Vitality in the Department of Medicine University of Calgary.
Jocelyn Cornwell
Chief executive of The Point of Care Foundation
Melanie Jones
Medical career development advisor
Anthony Montgomery
Professor of Work & Organizational Psychology, University of Macedonia
Rebecca Burch
Neurologist and headache specialist in Boston and Wellness Committee chair
Ronald Epstein
Professor of Family Medicine, Psychiatry, Oncology and Medicine (Palliative Care), American Cancer Society Clinical Research Professor, Co-director, Center for Communication and Disparities Research, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry
Clare Gerada
Medical director of the NHS Practitioner Health Programme and GP
Cat Chatfield and Abi Rimmer are the co-leads of The BMJ Wellbeing work. You can contact them via Twitter on @drcatchatfield and @abi_rimmer or please join The BMJ Wellbeing group on Facebook.