Sustainability, Resilience, Occupational Health Flashcards
What is resilience?
- An emotional competence or a personality characteristic that deals with negative effects of stress and promotes adaptation.
- Resilience can also, however, be an acquired virtue or behaviour and requires continuous improvement.
- Encompasses several dimensions including self-efficiency; self-control; self-regulation; planning and perseverance
What behaviours may help to support resilience?
- Support networks
- Reflective ability
- Assertiveness
- Avoiding procrastination
- Developing goals
- Time management
- Work-life balance
List some personal sources of burnout in medicine
- Perfectionism, denial, avoidance, micromanaging
- Being too conscientious
List some professional sources of burnout in medicine
- Culture of invulnerability
- Culture of presenteeism
- Blame culture/silence
List some systemic sources of burnout in medicine
- Overwork, shiftwork, lack of oversight
- Chaotic work environments
- Lack of teamwork, fractured training
What ways may burnout present in students?
- Repeatedly failing/nearly failing
- Handing in work late
- Poor attendance
- Absence due to illness
- Behavioural issues
- Fitness to practice issues
- Lack of engagement with the course
- Poor communication with staff, peers and patients
What may resilience lead to in practice?
- Reflection
- Improvement
What factors may aid in resilience?
- Intellectual interest
- Self awareness and self reflection
- Time management and work life balance
- Continuing professional development
- Support including team working
- Mentors
- Good professional/societal attitudes
- Structural changes
What may take place in an occupational history?
- Description of previous jobs
- Identifying exposure to chemicals/hazards/stress
- Change when not at work?
- PPE
- Do others suffer? etc
What is the purpose of the ‘fit note’?
- Replaced the ‘sick note ‘
- Facilitate earlier discussion about returning to work/rehabilitation.
- Includes items of consideration for employers for a patient’s return to work.
- Can only be completed by a Doctor
- Not binding on the employer
- Required if the patient has been off more than 7 days
What service is available for patients who are off for long periods of time/with complex needs?
Specialist occupational health services
What is the purpose of occupational health services?
- Support and help people stay in work
- Prevent work-related ill health
- Provide specialist rehabilitation advice
- Provide independent impartial advice to employers and employees
- Conduct research into work related health issues
- Ensure compliance with health and safety regulations
- Advise on medical health and ill-health retirement
List some fit note options
- Phased return to work
- Altered hours
- Amended duties
- Workplace adaptation
List some reasons that unemployment is considered harmful to health?
- Higher mortality
- Poorer general health
- Poorer mental health, psychological distress
- Higher medical consultations, medication consumption and hospital admissions.
What is the definition of sustainability?
- Able to continue over a period of time
- In healthcare - low carbon clinical care - ability of NHS to continue over time
