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.

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