Intended for healthcare professionals

Wellbeing

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.

Wellbeing logo

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
Do medical schools care? Rethinking compassion within medical training
Everything, every day, all at once—why we need to ask less of medical students


#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.