The Healthy Doctor

Dr Lois Brand

Honorary Associate Clinical Professor

Warwick Medical School

University of Warwick

Telephone:      +44 7729 540595

Email:              lois.brand@warwick.ac.uk

The World Health Organisation defines health as 'A state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity'. Our current approach to health however is almost entirely to do with individual disease management, rather than maintaining and optimising health.

  There is currently very little in the curriculum of UK medical schools addressing personal well-being.  Warwick Medical School have recognised the importance of challenging students with practical advice on optimising their health that they can then carry through their careers as doctors.  The benefits of this approach are potentially far reaching:  1.  Better physical and mental health for the individual student / doctor;  2.  A personal appreciation of how lifestyle can positively affect health and well-being; 3.  Providing a role model for their future patients for healthy living; 4.  Being more likely to address lifestyle issues with their patients and practice more preventative healthcare.

 A study by Ball and Bax found that medical students’ self care and stress management habits deteriorated during the course of their study. Alcohol consumption increased over time while socialisation and exercise decreased.¹  Perhaps not surprisingly, students are more prone to depression at finals than when they started out on their medical studies. The 'Wellness Resource Guide' produced by the American Medical Student Association (AMSA)² points out that the way we take care of ourselves affects the way we take care of others, thus it is vitally important to be aware of this and maintain a healthy balance between work and self-care.  Including this pro-active healthy-living and personal well-being workshop in the medical undergraduate curriculum is an attempt to promote a healthier culture of medicine for doctors who graduate from Warwick Medical School.  The workshop is interactive in format and addresses four lifestyle areas:  nutrition; exercise; relaxation and recuperation; sleep.  It looks at the evidence base of the links between these basic areas and mental and physical good health.  Recognising the difficulty individuals often face in making lifestyle changes that are lasting, the workshop looks at motivation and effective goal setting and draws on ideas and approaches from the emerging field of positive psychology.

 References: ¹  Ball S and Bax A. Self-care in medical education: effectiveness of health-habits interventions for first-year medical students. Acad Med 2002;77(9), 911-917.; ²  Wellness Resource Guide for Medical Students. American Medical Students Association. 1997.