First Do No Self Harm: Understanding and Promoting Physician Stress Resilience

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.

About the Author :
Charles Figley, The Paul Henry Kurzweg, MD Distinguished Chair and Professor in Disaster Mental Health at Tulane University and Graduate School of Social Work Professor and Associate Dean for Research, New Orleans, Louisiana Peter Huggard, Senior Lecturer and Academic Advisor, Department of General Practice and Primary Health Care, School of Population Health, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland, New Zealand Charlotte Rees, Associate Professor in Medical Education, Centre for Innovation in Professional Health Education and Research, Faculty of Medicine, University of Sydney, Australia

Review :
"Charles Figley is one of the most respected names in the prevention of secondary stress...The scope of the book is wonderful so I think it will fill in many areas not covered by books in the field to-date." --Robert J. Wicks, PhD, Professor, Loyola University; OUP author of Overcoming Secondary Stress in Medical and Nursing Practice (2005) and The Resilient Clinician (2007). "[This book] is long overdue...I don't think any similar books are available...Physicians are notoriously reluctant to reach out for health related information for themselves until there is already a serious problem. Physician health program directors might be interested, and I suppose it is conceivable they might more or less strongly recommend it to their physician clients. They might also recommend it to those physicians who provide services to their clients." --Louise B. Andrew, MD, JD, Associate Director, Center for Professional Well-Being, founder, www.MDmentor.com; founder, American Association of Women Emergency Physicians; former Professor of Emergency Medicine, Johns Hopkins University "[T]he editors, Charles Figley, Peter Huggard, and Charlotte Rees, put forth a lifelong-learning goal of feeling compassion toward self, increasing self-awareness, and practicing self-care over the course of one's career. Although Figley et al.'s text is written through the lens of medicine, the educational goals for holistic training are universal to the helping professions. In the spirit of giving, the editors present readers with the human side of the enterprise--training beyond the textbook. The message goes beyond a call to action to revamp medical education. It reminds us of the humanity of the 'helping professions' and asks us to hold in hand simultaneously the constructs of personal and professional identity formation." -Donna LaPaglia, PsycCRITIQUES