Physician wellness
Coping with the stress of medical practice
Physicians regularly encounter patients or family members who behave aggressively and make demands that may be unrealistic and potentially harmful. In their medical practice, physicians need strategies and tools to manage conflict and such challenging behaviours.
Wellness strategies and resources for physician residents
By practising in a collegial manner, physicians may enhance the health outcomes of their patients and themselves.
This article focuses on how physicians can continue to practise safely into older age and recommends tools to help them tailor their practice to their skills and circumstances.
When caring for patients, physicians can neglect their own health and well-being. Doctors should improve their self-care for their own sake, and for the sake of their patients and the healthcare system.
Strategies to help mitigate risks for physicians who work night shifts.
Physicians named in a hospital complaint can feel reassured that due process exists and will be followed, and that the CMPA is available to help.
Physicians can take steps to address bullying and other abusive behaviours they may be subjected to by patients and their families, colleagues and other healthcare workers, and third parties.
Dealing with the stress of a College complaint is easier when a physician understands the complaint process and receives support, advice, and coping strategies from the CMPA.
In a profession where the culture has shifted significantly, one aspect of medical practice continues to endure: a physicians’ ability to put the health and needs of their patient first, often at the expense of their own personal health.
Becoming familiar with the processes for legal proceedings and College complaints and knowing where to get support can help put medical-legal difficulties into perspective and alleviate emotional stress for physicians.
For many physicians, having a complaint lodged against them with a regulatory authority (College) is stressful. If a College asks for a response to the complaint, either in writing or verbally, CMPA members should seek advice from the Association.
Every physician in Canada is likely to be affected by a medico-legal issue at some point over the course of his or her career.
DISCLAIMER: The information contained in this learning material is for general educational purposes only and is not intended to provide specific professional medical or legal advice, nor to constitute a "standard of care" for Canadian healthcare professionals. The use of CMPA learning resources is subject to the foregoing as well as the CMPA's Terms of Use.