Keeping doctors happy and productive requires a thorough understanding of the systemic causes and consequences of physician stress, as well as the role of resilience in maintaining a healthy mental state. The pressure of making life-or-death decisions along with those associated with the day-to-day challenges of doctoring can lead to poor patient care and communication, patient dissatisfaction, absenteeism, reductions in productivity, job dissatisfaction, and lowered retention.
This edited volume will provide a comprehensive tool for understanding and promoting physician stress resilience. Specifically, the book has six interrelated objectives that, collectively, would advance the evidence-based understanding of (1) the extent to which physicians experience and suffer from work-related stress; (2) the various manifestations, syndromes, and reaction patterns directly caused by work-related stress; (3) the degree to which physicians are resilient in that they are successful or not successful in coping with these stressors; (4) the theories and direct evidence that account for the resilience; (5) the programs during and following medical school which help to promote resilience; and (6) the agenda for future theory, research, and intervention efforts for the next generation of physicians.
"First Do No Self Harm" by three medical and mental health educators offers a clarion call for the improved medical and mental health of physicians across their education continuum by posing and answering five fundamental questions about sources of stress and methods of coping among physicians and medical students.
The final chapter... looks forward to a time when there will be a worldwide debate about physician stress and resilience in order to better understand, prevent and manage the destructive, negative effects of stress that undoubtedly accompanies the delivery of medical services. It is in everyone's interest - doctors and patients alike - that such a debate takes place and this book should be essential reading in working towards that aim.
