The Practice Guide
C. TO THEMSELVES AND
COLLEAGUES
Principles of Practice
The practice of medicine is challenging. Physicians
are expected by the profession and the public to
meet high standards for excellence in the care they
provide to patients. In addition, physicians often face
competing demands — from patients, other health
care professionals, the health care system, and from
the expectations the physician holds for him or herself. These factors can give rise to stress, fatigue, exhaustion and frustration, which can have an impact
on both the physician personally and the care the
physician is able to provide to his or her patients.
Physicians, as a group, should provide mentorship,
support and care to one another, in order to ensure
their patients receive quality care, as well as to maintain their own personal wellness.
Duties
1. Mentorship
Physicians should be prepared to provide to colleagues, and accept from colleagues, both formal
and informal mentorship. Mentorship involves the
sharing of knowledge, experience and ideals, and
allows physicians the opportunity to obtain advice
and support in their various physician roles. As mentors, physicians should lead by example.
Mentorship is also an informal mechanism for maintaining the high expectations and standards of the
profession.
2. Wellness
Physician wellness is a critical component of the
professional practice of medicine. Wellness is defined
as the condition of good physical and mental health
necessary to provide high quality care to patients
and to fulfill the duties noted above.
Because physicians cannot serve their own patients
if they are not well, physicians may have to put
their own needs for wellness ahead of the needs of
individual patients or the public as a whole in some
circumstances.
Physician wellness is also important for its own sake,
independent of any responsibility to others.
Physicians should only care for patients when they
are well enough to do so. In order to ensure that
patients receive high quality care, physicians have a
responsibility to:
• be aware of their own health, which includes being
able to recognize when they are not well enough to
provide competent care;
• obtain help, if necessary, from colleagues, their
own physician, or other supports, in order to ensure
their own wellness;
• adjust their practice, as necessary, to ensure that
patients can and do receive appropriate care.
The best interests of patients are served when physicians take time to meet their own needs and are
continually aware of their own wellness. This means
recognizing limits imposed by fatigue, stress or illness and taking care to ensure a healthy work-life
balance. This is not always easy. Physicians set high
expectations for themselves and may not immediately recognize either transient or longer term periods of incapacity. Recognition of transient incapacity
is particularly difficult.
In leading by example for patients and colleagues,
physicians should avoid self-treatment. Instead,
physicians should try to establish a relationship as
a patient with another physician they trust for care
and should seek advice about their own care from
that physician.
Welcome to the College – May 2016
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