Covid still threatens Doctors
The GMC reported on the impact of Covid last week. Their annual Training survey confirmed what many of us knew already; there is increased burnout amongst trainees, and a reversal of recent improvements in workloads and wellbeing across medical staff.
Trainees, who occupy responsible medical positions in Hospitals, expressed a high degree of burnout – 60% said they always or often felt exhausted at the end of a working day and over 40% said their work was emotionally exhausting.
Charlie Massie, Chief Executive of the GMC, said ‘The danger is that, unless action is taken, workloads and wellbeing will continue to suffer, and future burnout rates could get even worse. As we move on from the pandemic, it is vital that doctors’ training and wellbeing needs are central to service recovery plans. This year’s results should be a blip caused by COVID, not part of a new normal’.
Added to these pressures is the backlog of work that was postponed during Covid with the NHS ‘struggling to recover from the pandemic’ with backlogs ‘not just a risk to patients but also to the health and wellbeing of Doctors’.
Doctors remain positive however and continue to work hard and show commitment to their patients. Charlie Massie concluded that ‘Support for trainees and trainers must be at the heart of future workforce policy decisions, or we risk creating a vicious circle that, ultimately, will adversely affect patients’.
Support can take many forms within the NHS to enable committed but stressed Trainees and Senior Doctors to remain focussed on their careers, to plan for their future and to test out options for improvement. In my opinion there is an increasing role for Executive Coaching to explore career change, changes in working pattern, new motivations to continue in healthcare etc. A Trained Coach will assist by listening and probing questioning, allowing the Doctor to understand the range of opportunities for change available to them and to test ideas. Coaching is a highly effective tool to promote personal change and wellbeing.
As a qualified Executive Coach I can offer Coaching on a 1:1 basis - please book a free 30 minute conversation here, without obligation, to find out more.