Healthcare Environments that Care for Doctors Increase Care for Patients

A recent report from the General Medical Council in the UK states that a working environment that supports clinicians is conducive to their well-being and this in turn flows on to that of their patients.

The main points that come out of the report are that people need:

Autonomy and control - they need to have control over their work lives, and to act consistently with their work and life values. Recommendations cover voice, influence and fairness, working conditions, schedules and rotas.
    

Belonging – clinicians need to be connected to, cared for, and caring of others around us in the workplace and to feel valued, respected and supported. Recommendations cover teamwork, culture and leadership.

Competence – doctors need to experience effectiveness and deliver valued outcomes, such as high-quality care. Recommendations cover workload, training, learning and development, and management and supervision.

A full version of the report can be found here.

In Australia the AMA acknowledges that "doctors need to be well to provide health care to their patients and community, and to experience medicine as a rewarding and satisfying career". Resources to help can be found on the AMA website. 

                                                                                                      Source: https://ama.com.au/

While Australia boast one of the best health care systems in the world junior doctors need help as a myriad of reports such as those found in the Sydney Morning Herald have revealed. It seems that there are many junior doctors that are receiving sub-standard care from the institutions that employ and train them. 

The article points out the comparison with pilots when and interviewed doctor recalled being on a plane that had been taxi-ing for over an hour. The pilot announced that the flight would be delayed as as he had exceeded his on-duty hours, and that a back-up pilot would need to be called in. It was explained that that would never happen in a hospital. If we won't let a pilot fly a plane why do we let doctors make important decisions for their patients having worked for 14 to 18 hours? Many trainees worry that they will make errors because they were overtired.

No student of medicine goes into the field of medicine thinking it is going to be easy. The job is expected to be hard, but the conditions do not need to make it harder. The JMO Wellbeing & Support Forum in 2017 identified key themes for improvement at the LHD level including; improved rostering; increased staff numbers; ensuring overtime is claimed; review of work conditions, including limiting hours; more staff specialists, less VMOs; more senior clinicians on the floor; improved maternity leave policies; flexible working such as job share; improved IT systems. The forum summary can be found here. LHDs need to keep working on the recommendations  to ensure the well-being of Australian doctors to improve the health of the communities that they are working in.