For people who work in a ‘caring’ profession, doctors are notoriously bad at looking after their health and well-being. It has been said that doctors’ own health care is characterised by ‘the 3D (delusional, denial and delay) and 4S approach (self- investigation, self-diagnosis, self treatment, and self referral).’

Less than a quarter of general practitioners seek professional medical advice for their own health problems, and most have prescribed medication for themselves at some time. We have higher rates of depression, substance abuse, car accidents, suicide and marital discord than the general community. Burnout is now an important issue in the medical community – a 1998 study showed 53% of Australian GP’s had considered leaving general practice because of stress. Doctor tend to be perfectionists and our selection and training encourages us to be conscientious, reluctant to delegate and unwilling to take time off when unwell. Our profession generally entails more than a ‘9-to-5’ job, with long hours, weekend work and on-call the norm. Added to this are increased organizational, financial and legal pressures in the current medical professional environment.

As registrars, we have additional sources of pressure, often juggling usual work and family commitments with study and exam preparation. Compulsory training requirements cause us to move frequently (often leaving family behind) adding further pressures, reducing time available for ‘self-care’ and making it more difficult to seek confidential professional advice. Many GP registrars are international medical graduates, who have additional stresses arising form the restrictions of the 10 year moratorium on provider numbers, the need to complete further assessment and training (often in a language not their mother tongue), and cultural and social isolation.
For all these reasons it is important that we as registrars take the time to look after ourselves, and seek help and support when it is needed. What practical ways are there that we can give ourselves a well-being check up? AFP published several articles on this topic in 2002. Dr Hilton Koppe, a GP in Lennox Heads, NSW and medical educator with NCGPT, developed a useful ‘well-being checklist’ for doctors.

Physical wellbeing
How is your health? Do you have a regular GP, and when did you last have a ‘check-up’ or seek advice for a health problem? Are you prescribing your own medications? Do you eat well, and take regular exercise?

Mental wellbeing
This doesn’t just mean depression/anxiety, but habitual thought patterns, which may include negative patterns such as ‘I never have enough time’ or ‘I’m not good at…..’ identifying these thoughts may help you to make changes in your life to improve your wellbeing

Spiritual wellbeing
This will mean different things to different people, but having a ‘world view’, or thought about meaning in life can help prevent burnout.

Relationships
Which ones are important to you and how are they going? Remember, relationships take time, effort and care. Do you have a close friend or ‘mentor’ with whom you can discuss events at work and in your life, to ‘debrief’ with?

Activities
Do you have at least one non-work activity each week that you look forward to? How is your work-life balance going?

Environment
What is your work environment like? Home? Are these environments contributing to your levels of stress/discontent? Or do they help with your feelings of wellbeing/contentedness?

Use this checklist to identify areas in your life that may need some ‘maintenance’. Get into good habits early on in your training so that you can have a long fruitful and enjoyable career

If you have concerns about your health, or feel you aren’t coping with things, who can you turn to? It is really helpful to have your own general practitioner to talk things over with. Always feel free to speak to your RLO confidentially – they may be able to offer support, suggestions, or provide you with details of someone else who can help. Another place to find advice and assistance is:

Doctor’s Health Advisory Service:
www.doctorshealth.org.au
Helpline – (02) 9437 6552