May I long experience the joy of healing: professional and personal wellbeing among physicians from a Canadian province

Abstract

BackgroundThe development of best practices to promote physician wellbeing at the individual and organisational levels is receiving increased attention. Few studies have documented how physicians perceive their wellbeing in these contexts. The purpose of this qualitative study is to identify and discuss the reported factors that hinder wellbeing, as well as the reported factors that would promote wellbeing among physicians.MethodsThere were 165 physicians from a province of Canada who wrote their open-ended responses to two questions, as part of a larger self-report questionnaire. The questions asked what causes them stress, and what interventions should be implemented at organisational/institutional levels. The largest specialty was family medicine, followed by internal medicine, and surgical disciplines, with 58% of participants male. A general inductive approach was used to analyze the data and themes and sub-themes were discovered using the socio-ecological model as the framework.ResultsReponses were both personal and professional which resulted in the emergence of four major themes to reflect this diversity. These themes were external constraints on the practice of medicine, issues at the professional/institutional levels, issues at the individual practice level, and work/life balance. The work/life balance theme received the highest number of responses followed by external constraints on the practice of medicine. In the major theme of work-life balance, work-life conflict received the most responses, and in the major theme of external constraints on practice of medicine, lack of resources (human and material) and restrictions to autonomy received the most responses. Ideas for interventions in the work/life balance theme were health promotion, and healthy workplace initiatives. In the second largest theme, suggested ideas for interventions were collegiality/professionalism and policy formulation at the health care system.ConclusionOur findings have implications for governance and health policy, health human resources and education. In particular, the socio-ecological framework was a useful framework to analyse physician wellbeing due to its applicability for issues at the structural, organisational, and individual levels. Future research should target interventions at the organisational and institutional levels to address work-life conflict and job dissatisfaction.

Altering workplace attitudes for resident education (A.W.A.R.E.): discovering solutions for medical resident bullying through literature review

“…A commentary on the experience of Canadian physicians stated: “Students and junior doctors experience uncivil workplace behaviors such as bullying, belittlement and racism, creating a toxic environment. These acts have far-reaching negative effects on personal health, personal relations, career satisfaction, and create a ripple effect that permeates every facet of the health system… Healthy workplace initiatives are needed as residents and medical students indicate that medical training has adversely affected their health [ 42 ] ”. …”

“…Depressed residents make more medical errors [ 47 ], such as six times more medication errors than their colleagues [ 10 ], and are the main source of medical error reporting [ 47 ]. Stress has been associated with medical errors and poor patient care [ 42 , 47 ]. In fact, stress management courses decrease the rate of malpractice claims and medication errors [ 42 ].…”

Resilience training for healthcare providers: an Asian perspective

“…Medical educators underestimate distress in residents and curricula are needed that promote selfawareness and healthy approaches to balancing personal and professional life" (p. 517). Organisations can assist in the development of intervention programmes, policies and educational courses to improve work-related stress (22,56).…”

Work-life conflict and health among Swiss physicians - In comparison with other university graduates and with the general Swiss working population

“…Also, beyond work-life conflict research, the issue of physicians' health has been of interest in several studies [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31], particularly because of concerns for quality in the healthcare system [27]. The results have not been consistent.…”