Feedback from an NHS Registrar following the 8 Week Mindful Medics Course
Delivered (Apr - Jun 2018):
How is your morale after the course compared to before?
As you will remember from the first week, I have spent the last few years seriously considering whether I am in the right profession. I’ve been plagued by ‘imposter syndrome’ and negative thoughts about work. Despite being happy in my personal life, my doubts about work have had a tendency to dominate my leisure time, which has culminated in several crises of confidence, in which I have felt the only option was to find an escape, either by changing specialty or to leave medicine altogether.
My morale has much improved following the course. I feel more positive about my career and the future. I am recognising parts of work that I enjoy, feel more settled in my specialty and have no plans to leave. This has had knock-on positive effects on my personal life too…
How has the course helped your professional life?
Increased productivity – I have recognised that trying to multi-task when under pressure is paradoxically unproductive and exacerbates stress. Focusing my attention on one task at a time has helped me to achieve more at work, feel less overwhelmed by my workload and enjoy work more.
New ways of responding to my thought patterns - One day at work I had a negative interaction with a senior colleague. My immediate reaction was that I was ‘rubbish’, a useless trainee, and that things would be so much better if I switched specialities, or I quit. I was able to recognise this as an ‘all-or nothing’ reaction, treat it in isolation rather than jumping to extreme conclusions and reflect on and seek alternative explanations for why it happened. The next day I had moved past the negative feelings and was feeling positive again. I feel this averted a negative spiral which in the past has persisted for weeks/months, made me resent my job and look for alternatives outside of medicine.
Better response to difficult situations - A recent example includes a patient who I felt was making unreasonable demands. My initial reaction was to think they were rude and ungrateful. I used the ‘SOS Response’ tool to collect my thoughts before responding. I responded compassionately by seeking to understand why the parent was being demanding and addressing her concerns. This maintained our doctor-patient relationship, and I finished the interaction feeling valued rather than annoyed.
Would you recommend this course to colleagues:
Absolutely. It’s unfathomable given the stress of decision-making, time-pressure, academic and physical demands and competition that doctors face that we are given so little support. There’s a lot of unhappy junior doctors who I think this course would help which could help improve retention in medicine.
