A message from Dr. Peter Yellowlees, Chief Wellness Officer

Humanity, compassion, and post-traumatic growth.
   
Last week I attended the virtual meeting of the International Conference on Physician Health. This is a biannual meeting coordinated by the British Medical Association, the American Medical Association, and the Canadian Medical Association which this year was streamed from London and is without doubt the largest and most influential conference on this topic. I thought it would be useful to summarize some of the themes that stood out, and which are affecting physicians in all three countries.
 

1. The importance of physician’s self-care and humanity. We all know the airplane pre-flight check where we are asked to put on our own oxygen masks before helping our children put on theirs. This metaphor was the focus of one keynote, where the speaker noted that if physicians were flying the plane, they would ask that all children and disabled people have their masks put on first, and that the most physically capable wait till last, if they were not by that stage too hypoxic, to put on their own masks. This metaphor really connected with me. It made the obvious point that we must always make sure we are fully fit to perform our work first and foremost, while retaining our humanity and care for our patients. So, while the Hippocratic Oath talks about putting our patients first, we should not do this if it means we become unfit to provide our services as a result. Of particular importance here is sleep deprivation associated with our long hours of work and on call responsibilities which we may impair decision making, both cognitive and physical. Physicians must take care of themselves both for their own sake and for our patients.

 

2. The need for compassion in health systems.  To achieve culture change and as a core value and leadership quality within health systems, compassion is essential. There is a lot of evidence to show that caring for staff with compassion (remember compassion = empathy + action) is effective, especially when shown at the clinical team level by physicians who are good team leaders and understand the importance of gratitude and respect for other team members and their colleagues. Compassionate physicians are more likely to be treated with respect and kindness by patients and colleagues alike.

 

3. Physicians’ Needs. The recent UK General Medical Council  “ Caring for doctors, Caring for patients ” is focused on what was called the ABC of doctors’ core needs, and how to meet these:

 

1. Autonomy/control – the need to have control over our work lives and to act consistently with our work and life values.
2. Belonging – the need to be connected to, cared for, and caring of others around us in the workplace and to feel valued, respected and supported 
3. Competence – the need to experience effectiveness and deliver valued outcomes, such as high-quality care.  

 
Finally, there was a lot of discussion about Covid-19 and how we should not waste this crisis (to quote Winston Churchill). One of the most interesting components was a strong feeling that the pandemic has been an inflection point where we have undergone a series of forced experiments (such as using video visits, changing workflows, etc.). In the aftermath, we cannot afford to miss the opportunity to improve physician well-being long term as we experience post-traumatic growth as a profession and have the attention and engagement of stakeholders in our health system and across the world.
 
Let’s make sure that we do not just try and get back to where we were before the pandemic. Let’s continue with the effective improvements that were made during this crisis.  One very positive outcome of this pandemic has been the outpouring of support and appreciation of our profession by communities across the nation. We need post-traumatic growth, and positive change, for all of us in healthcare and consequently for our patients. We shouldn’t be aiming to return to the pre-pandemic status. I encourage you to keep sending in your ideas targeting positive change and recognition of our colleagues.