In this episode, Rachel talks about the worrying statistics about burnout and exhaustion in doctors and discusses some of the reasons why burnout is on the increase. 

There are some uncomfortable truths about burnout

• Doctors are not immune – in fact perfectionist tendencies and increased engagement with their jobs make them more prone to burnout
• In the ICD 11 codes, the WHO have newly classified Burnout Syndrome as caused by a toxic workplace culture and unmanaged stress 
• No-one else is going to take control for you – you have to make changes yourself

Rachel talks about strategies to prevent stress and presents a crucial mindset shift that is needed in order to beat burnout. Getting mastery of our jobs and the tools we need to stay resilient is the first step. We also need to get a supportive community around us to challenge us and help us to think issues through. 

Finally, we need autonomy in our work life, and the ability to take control over our wellbeing, our stress and our time. Time is a big issue - we often feel we don’t have enough time to do everything that is required of us, let alone find time to plan how we will make changes, so Rachel provides a helpful tool – the Thrive Week Planner which you can download to help plan what a good working week looks like in which you can thrive. 

We’d love you to join the Beat Stress and Thrive Tribe Rachel’s brand new online course and membership community for doctors under pressure which will help you to do all of this. This special offer is for a limited time only – the community is open for new members until 17th March 2020  (if you have missed this offer, sign up to the mailing list to be the first to know about future course and community intakes and events). Find out more details about the Beat Stress and Thrive Tribe here

Podcast links

https://www.gmc-uk.org/-/media/documents/caring-for-doctors-caring-for-patients_pdf-80706341.pdf 

https://bjgp.org/content/bjgp/69/684/e507.full.pdf 

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown 

The online course and membership community Beat Stress and Thrive Tribe

For more episodes of You are not a frog, check out our website You Are Not A Frog Podcasts and sign up to our mailing list here for loads of useful resources about thriving at work. 

Follow Rachel on twitter @DrRachelMorris or LinkedIn and find out more about her online and face to face courses for doctors on surviving and thriving at work at www.shapesfordoctors.com or for other organisations at www.shapestoolkit.co.uk  

Mentioned in this episode:

The Work Well Programme for Healthcare staff
Help everyone in your organisation beat burnout with resources that really work.