Rachel K. Thomas - How to Promote Wellbeing

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Dr Rachel K. Thomas

Central and North West London

NHS Foundation Trust

UK

This edition first published 2021

© 2021 Dr Rachel K. Thomas

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The right of Dr Rachel K. Thomas to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with law.

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Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data

Names: Thomas, Rachel K. (Rachel Katherine), author.

Title: How to promote wellbeing : practical steps for healthcare practitioners’ mental health / Rachel K. Thomas.

Description: First edition. | Hoboken, NJ : Wiley‐Blackwell, 2021. | Includes index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020032172 (print) | LCCN 2020032173 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119614364 (paperback) | ISBN 9781119614395 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781119614401 (epub)

Subjects: MESH: Health Promotion–methods | Mental Health | Mental Disorders–prevention & control | Stress, Psychological–prevention & control | Global Health

Classification: LCC RC455 (print) | LCC RC455 (ebook) | NLM WM 101 | DDC 616.89–dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020032172LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/20200321

Cover Design: Wiley

Cover Image: © TECHDESIGNWORK/Getty Images

Dr Rachel Thomas is a medical doctor in the NHS, in central London. She is the award‐winning author of books including Practical Medical Procedures at a Glance , and Medical School at a Glance , and is the founder of the mental health platform the wellbeing doctor . She has a medical degree from the University of Oxford, and an MSc in the neuroscience and psychology of mental health from King’s College London. She also holds a BSc and a BEng in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Sydney.

Thank you to those who have supported this book.

Great thanks go to Dr Diana Thomas for her invaluable assistance with all aspects of this book. Thanks also go to Hugh, Rob, Matthew, Pepper, Camilla, Peter, Sienna, Andrew, James, Alyssa, and Napoleon for their support.

Thanks go to the various healthcare practitioners that have kindly had input into this book. In particular, thanks go to Lara Lopes de Jesus, counselling psychologist, for her feedback.

Thanks also go to James Watson, Anne Hunt, and Tom Marriott at Wiley Blackwell Publishing for turning this book into a reality, at a time when the mental health and wellbeing of clinicians – indeed that of us all ‐ is being so significantly tested.

This book provides a concise resource for addressing many mental health and wellbeing challenges that we, as clinicians, may be confronted with. These are summarised in an evidence‐based toolkit to help us in several ways. Initially, to decrease the risk and impact of potentially debilitating conditions such as burnout on ourselves, and consequently, to impact more positively on our patients’ outcomes.

Working in healthcare means that we are at the helm of an unsteady ship, a system focussed on providing optimal care for patients. We have to be ready to act when required – be this at 2am on a night shift, on a long weekend day shift with skeleton staff, or in the middle of a day when we can feel our blood sugar dropping to our boots as the imaginary idea of lunch hour sails by. Unfortunately, keeping an even keel is often at the sacrifice of those of us working within this system.

Emergencies are unpredictable. Patients can suddenly deteriorate. Someone who seems on the mend one moment, can be seriously ill the next, for example with infections or complications. Coupled with immune systems that are already under pressure, the results can swiftly become catastrophic. And when the unthinkable happens and a pandemic sweeps the globe, the cases of emergencies and deteriorations start to occur at an exponential rate. Healthcare systems are expanded to cope in as best a way as they can, stretching all of their components, including clinicians working within them, to breaking point and beyond.