Premium
Canada responds: an explosion in doctors’ health awareness, promotion and intervention
Author(s) -
Puddester Derek G
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2004.tb06337.x
Subject(s) - promotion (chess) , intervention (counseling) , citation , psychology , medical school , library science , medical education , medicine , psychiatry , political science , computer science , law , politics
Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada. Derek G Puddester, MD, FRCPC, Director, Faculty Wellness Program, and Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry. Reprints will not be available from the authors. Correspondence: Dr Derek G Puddester, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, 451 Smyth Road — Room 2035, Ottawa, ON K1H 8M5, Canada. puddester@cheo.on.ca The Medical Journal of Australia ISSN: 0025729X 4 October 2004 181 7 386-387 ©The Medical Journal of Australia 2004 www.mja.com.au Global Vision – Doctors’ health high, with key factors for doctors including the po death, placing one’s family at risk of infection, and differently by others because one worked in a hospit Before SARS, there had been increasing recognitio ness of the health and wellness needs of Canada’s medical students. In 1997, the Canadian Federatio Students (CFMS) produced a position paper on th he Ca sy addition T sudden acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic in nada exposed the vulnerabilities of our public health stem, and demonstrated the strength of its caregivers. In to the devastating effects of this illness on patients and their families, SARS also highlighted the importance of professional health. The impact of SARS on healthcare professionals was tential risk of being treated al setting. n and awaredoctors and n of Medical e health and well-being of medical students, and others quickly followed. Our healthcare system continues to struggle with constraints on financial and human resources in the face of ever-increasing need and expenditure. Indeed, as funders and providers struggle to manage, doctors are reporting rates of advanced burnout approaching 50%. This struggle has been acknowledged at some of the highest political levels, including the head of the recent Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada, former Premier Roy Romanow, who, in an address to the General Council of the Canadian Medical Association in August 2003, stated, “If we don’t look after the health care of our providers, they can’t look after the health care of [us].”