- Overwhelming stress can trigger a range of physical responses
- Recharge your body to cope with everyday pressures
Promoting doctors’ well-being
Ensuring quality patient care
Take actions ASAP to manage stress and to avoid burnout
Academy’s Commitment
Quality patient care and doctors’ well-being go hand in hand.1 As healthcare practitioners, our duty is to look after the health of patients and the community,2 and we can do this well only if we are willing and able to look after ourselves and each other.
Every one of our colleagues should also enjoy the opportunities for personal development and for meeting demands in other areas of life, and we can help each other to achieve that.
The Hong Kong Academy of Medicine (Academy), assuming a leading role in the medical and dental profession, has promulgated a Well-being Charter committed to cultivating and promoting well-being of Academy Fellows and specialist trainees of Academy Colleges. We pledge to acknowledge the importance of well-being, to take actions, and to advocate policy changes for the improvement of our Fellows’ and trainees’ wellness.
U.K. Department of Health defines well-being as “feeling good and functioning well and comprises an individual’s experience of their life; and a comparison of life circumstances with social norms and values.”1
World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”2
Our approach
Manage stress and avoid burnout through the ASAP approach
Awareness
Self-assessment and screening
Know more about
Stress
Know more about
Burnout
Know more about
Stress
Know more about
Burnout
Self-care
De-stress, avoid burnout
Take time to take care of yourself. Find ways to relieve stress when you feel overwhelmed. There are several dimensions of well-being:
- Maintain curiosity, value lifelong learning and respond positively to intellectual challenges
- Expand knowledge and skills
- Be mindful of your financial decision making
- Participate in work that provides personal satisfaction and life enrichment that is consistent with your values, goals, and lifestyle
- Maintain healthy relationships, enjoy being with others, take care of others and let others take care of you
- Identify, understand and respect your feelings, values and attitudes that may lead to negative emotions
- Lead a lifestyle that values the relationship between the individual, the community, and the environment
- Well-being is affected by the environments we live in and we as individuals also have a significant impact on these environments
- Find purpose, value, and meaning in your life, and participate in activities that are consistent with your beliefs and values
- How to: Sitting meditation in 10 minutes
- How to: Body scan in 10 minutes
- How to: Breathing space in 3 minutes
- Chicken Soup for the Doctor’s Soul
Suggested readings
Ask for help
Do not hesitate to ask for help
Asking for help is in no way regarded as a weakness. Rather, it is a way of mustering strength and courage to face challenges or alter the situation. Available support services out of your personal or workplace circles:
Peer support
Professional assistance
Promotion of well-being
Take action now. Advocate the importance of doctors’ well-being.
We must take care of our own well-being in order to provide quality care to patients.
