What does a clinician need to do to look after themselves?

Summary

Healthy clinicians, healthy patients! To be an effective clinician, you need to focus first on your own health and wellbeing.

Why?

The role of a clinician involves providing compassionate, safe, and competent care. Their duty is to support the patients physical, emotional, and mental health needs to live a fulfilling life. To provide this they need to ensure that they are aware of factors affecting their own personal health and wellbeing. Sometimes the demands of the job can make it difficult to sustain good physical and mental health…

Which needs?

There are different levels of personal needs – starting with the basic physiological needs vital for survival such as food, water, air, shelter and warmth. Next, social needs such as personal relationships, family, workplace group and social group; and finally esteem needs such as status needs, for example self-respect and respect from others and self-actualisation needs. (Maslow’s hierarchy, 1943)

Factors affecting physical health

Long shifts, night shifts and irregular meals with frequent high demand at work leads to insufficient rest. This results in an inability to relax and poor exercise, low motivation, and poor diet, including consuming high sugar foods and drinks and processed food. These can result in insomnia, weight gain or obesity which can further lead to several other health problems like increased risk of developing diabetes, hypertension, or heart disease.

Factors affecting mental health

Seeing vulnerable patients suffer from health-related conditions has an impact on personal wellbeing as it can makes clinicians feel emotionally drained. High levels of anxiety, stress and sadness are all common. Clinicians can feel low, irritable, unenthusiastic and less tolerant towards colleagues. Mood and motivation changes can of course affect quality of sleep, appetite, stamina and levels of happiness.

How can I be a healthy clinician?

Physical self-care: Getting sufficient sleep is very important towards maintaining physical health. Reduce caffeine intake and limit screen time in the evening. Plan to improve diet and reduced sugary snacks and increasing vegetable and fruit intake. Plan to increase physical activity levels as well.

Emotional self-care: By being aware of emotions should help address negative emotions especially when things go wrong. Furthermore, reflecting on thoughts with the help of reflective theories and models such as Gibbs (1988) reflective cycle, will help recognise your own strengths and weaknesses and areas to develop. Lastly, by improving your emotional intelligence, you would be able to understand and manage emotions and accept and appreciate others’ emotions as well.

Social self-care: By spending time with loved ones, family and friends will help to reduce stress and increase motivation.

Spiritual care: By increasing spiritual dimensions such as meditation, mindfulness, and yoga, you will become emotionally stronger and develop greater empathy towards others.

Professional self-care: By improving your knowledge and skills through self-study, attending trainings, and gaining experience through working. Having a structured personal development plan towards this will help.

Developing and Practicing Resilience: Facing barriers and setbacks alongside limited resources is very common in healthcare. However, how you deal with this and cope forms the basis of resilience. Difficulties and shortcomings can lead to delays, harm or damage if not managed adequately and in time. Being resilient will help you to cope with stressful situations and improve your health and wellbeing.

How can I develop resilience?

Build your self-confidence by improving your abilities and knowledge, engaging and interacting with work colleagues in a positive and enhancing way.

Being optimistic by having positive beliefs in your abilities and improving where it’s necessary.

Nurture yourself, try not to allow negative emotions, and deal with negative emotions in a positive manner.

Having a flexibility and adaptability to changing situations over which you have no control.

Develop your problem-solving skills and try to be solution focused.

Building strong social relationships and seeking appropriate support when needed.

The relationship between your health and your professional responsibilities

Maintaining wellbeing by adopting a healthy lifestyle is crucial for clinicians on the frontline service for providing care for people. If you adopt a healthy lifestyle, then the patients you care for will tend to adopt healthy choices as well. Healthy clinicians, healthy patients. It’s about role modelling and giving relevant information to patients so that they can make these healthy lifestyle choices.

Looking after your physical and mental health are both important for your role. Feeling energised and having stamina will give a positive performance at work. Interactions with patients improve. On the other hand, if you’re not happy and well rested, you will develop an unfavourable outlook of both your personal and professional life. Doubts, fear, a negative outlook which consequently affects your work, patients, and team members. Concentration at work is of course crucial – you will not be able to provide safe care to your patients without it.

Negative emotions and stress lead to avoidant behaviour at work, mistrust, low enthusiasm, absenteeism, and poor communication with the team members – which results in low performance and reduced patient care. It’s important to maintain effective communication with colleagues and to contribute efficiently and positively towards good teamwork for better patient care. Therefore, it’s important to discuss difficulties openly with colleagues and management to get timely help and support appropriately. Early intervention can have a positive impact and will reduce absence and sickness related to mental and physical health.

On the other hand, positive emotions and awareness will help you respect, motivate and support your colleagues at work which will result in building strong and effective relationships with the team, leading to higher performance.

If you’re struggling to improve your health and wellbeing, set up SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely) for yourself. Make a plan!