Doctor Informed

Everyone has coping mechanisms, but sometimes those ways of coping become problem behaviours - addictions.   In this episode of Doctor Informed, we're focussing on how to spot the signs that you may be sliding into addiction, how to have conversations with friends and colleagues if you worry about their behaviour, and how seeking treatment is the best way to avoid GMC scrutiny.   Joining Clara Munro are Liz Croton and Zaid Al-Najjar, GPs who work for NHS Practitioner health - a mental health and addiction service specifically for health professionals. They are also joined by Ruth Mayall, a retired consultant anaesthetist who has experienced addiction herself, and has contributed to the Association of Anaesthetists guidance on drug and alcohol abuse.   Some resources mentioned in the podcast;   NHS Practitioner Health https://www.practitionerhealth.nhs.uk/   The Sick Doctor's Trust http://sick-doctors-trust.co.uk/   British Doctors & Dentists Group https://www.bddg.org/   Substance use disorder in the anaesthetist https://anaesthetists.org/Home/Resources-publications/Guidelines/Substance-use-disorder-in-the-anaesthetist   Substance abuse in anaesthetists https://academic.oup.com/bjaed/article/16/7/236/2196385?login=false

In our final episode of this season, we're going quantitative, with the newly released data on how trainees in the UK are faring. Each year the UK's General Medical Council, the doctor's regulator, surveys trainees in the NHS to ask them questions about stress and burnout, harassment and discrimination, and how well supported they feel in their training. They also ask trainers about the same things. Unsurprisingly, the year the results look bad - with increasing levels of burnout across the board, but particularly in new trainees. At the same time trainers are feeling unable to use their time supporting learning, and instead are propping up the system. To discuss this, Clara Munro and Ayisha Ashmore are joined by Colin Melville, medical director, and director of education and standards, at the GMC.    All the data discussed, and the interactive tool that Colin mentions, are available on the GMC's National training survey 2023 results page.  

We're in pride month, and this year the celebration of LGBT+ people seems to be increasingly contentious.  Healthcare's treatment of queer people has improved hugely since the days when being gay was considered a mental disorder, and would end a doctor's career - but that doesn't mean that everything is equal. In this episode of Doctor Informed, we're hearing from two doctors who are out and proud at work, about what  it's been like to be queer in medicine, and what good allyship looks like. Our Guests Michael Farqhuar is consultant in sleep medicine at the Evelina London Children's Hospital, he also helped set up the NHS Rainbow badge scheme. Greta McLachlan is a general surgical trainee, and member of the Royal College of Surgeon's Pride in Surgery Forum

Fatigue can have as much of an affect in your ability to function as alcohol, and yet while you would be chastised for drinking before appearing on the ward, hospitals have systematically removed the spaces where tired clinicians can rest and recover. The Royal College of Anaesthetists have been campaigning to raise awareness of the dangers of fatigue, and it seems that anaesthetic trainees have benefitted from that, with sleep pods and flexible schedules - but other specialties are lagging behind. In this podcast, Roo McCrossan, a consultant anaesthetist joins our host Clara Munro, a surgical trainee, and Ayesha Ashmore, obstetric trainee, to talk about how to fight fatigue. They discuss circadian rhythms, what to eat, nappuccinos, and why trusts should make more sleeping spaces. For more information about fighting fatigue; https://anaesthetists.org/Home/Wellbeing-support/Fatigue/-Fight-Fatigue-download-our-information-packs

Grit is one of those concepts (like the dreaded resilience) that has a specific meaning, but has become a buzzword in healthcare. It’s the ability to persevere in the pursuit of a goal, in the face of obstacles - and it’s something all doctors have. However that trait has benefits and drawbacks. It’s not necessarily fixed, but will depend on context, and it is measurable but not a very helpful measure in isolation. In this episode, Clara Munro is joined by Declan Murphy and Ayisha Ashmore - and they sit down with neurourgeon and researcher Simone Betchen, who has measured grit in women surgeons, and helps them understand their grit scores. Reading list Grit in surgeons https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34218313/

One size doesn’t fit all - so what are the alternative career paths of doctors in the NHS? The treadmill of medical school, to foundation training, to specialist training, to a consultant position takes years and is not very trainee-centric in it’s design. So are there other ways for doctors to be able to work in the NHS, still progress their career, but also tailor the job to themselves? And what are the drawbacks of trying to do that? In this podcast, Clara Munro is joined by Flo Wedmore and new panelist Jason Ramsingh, a surgical trainee in Newcastle. They speak to Rob Fleming an SAS (speciality and associate specialist) doctor in anaesthetics.

In this episode of the Dr. Informed podcast, the topic of discussion is death and dying, and how to involve patients in DNACPR decisions. The panel discuss the importance of doctors having discussions with patients about end-of-life care as a way of creating the best possible death for patients. The conversation also touches on the challenges that doctors may face when having these difficult discussions and they give some advice on how they to overcome them. Joining Clara are; Mark Taubert, palliative care consultant, and national chair of future care planning for the Welsh Government Kat Shelley, an anaesthetics trainee, who has stage four breast cancer, and is receiving palliative care Lucy-Anne Frank, an elderly care consultant. The article "Do not resuscitate me in Barbados" is published by BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care, and is free to access at; https://spcare.bmj.com/content/11/3/310

#MedTwitter consists of an online community of researchers, health practitioners and students who have created an open source decentralised forum for information sharing, medical education and professional networking. #MedTwitter also provides a space for publications to be shared and promoted. While many will credit Twitter with giving a voice to clinicians, it also comes with challenges, the potential for abuse, or the spread of misinformation. Joining Clara to discuss are; Jonathan Guckian, a dermatology registrar in Leeds, and director of social media and communications at the Association for the Study of Medical Education (ASMI). Flo Wedmore, a medical registrar and NHS sustainability fellow Declan Murphy, an academic medical fellow S2 in ophthalmology in Newcastle, and former Sharp Scratch panelist.

In this episode of Doctor Informed, we're talking sustainability. The BMJ has a special edition on the climate crisis, and finding hope amid dispair - and we want to help our listeners with some of that. Clara is joined by three of the NHS's sustainability fellows, Florence, Who is a medical registrar, Emily a paedatrics trainee, and Li, an anaesthetics trainee For more on the climate crisis, read The BMJ's special edition https://www.bmj.com/content/379/8356

It's zoomers vs boomers on this week's Doctor Informed, as we assemble a multigenerational team to talk about the "good old days" and if the youth of today are really snowflakes. Clara Munro is joined by Nikki Nabavi, a medical student at Manchester University and a regular on Sharp Scratch (The BMJ's student podcast); Ayisha Ashmoore, an trainee in obstetrics and gynaecology, in the East Midlands; and Alastair Munro, a retired professor of oncology (and Clara's dad).