Ten tips for a healthy medical career

1. Have your own GP

rather than a friend in the corridor, or yourself, have a proper GP.

Your own GP gives you something every doctor needs: independent care, continuity, advocacy and perspective. Find someone you can access and return to over time.

If you are not sure where to start, we can help.

2. Have an annual check-up

Preventive care is still preventive care when the patient is you.

Make the appointment. Do the checks. Follow up the result. Repeat every year.

Your health is not separate from your clinical practice. It's part of it.

3. Book enough time

You know rushed medicine has its limits.

Book enough time for your own health, too. Give your own health the clinical time you would want for a patient, especially if there is more than one issue, or you've been putting it off.

Early care is almost always easier than urgent care.

4. Remember the basics

Water. Food. Movement. Sleep. Sunlight.

These are not soft extras. They are your operating conditions.

Pack food. Drink water. Move when you can. Get outside briefly. And, prioritise sleep before your body starts negotiating on your behalf.

You wouldn't recommend chronic depletion to a patient. Don’t prescribe it to yourself.

5. Keep something outside medicine

Medicine becomes very large, very quickly.

Keep something in your week that has nothing to do with work: music, sport, art, reading, volunteering, coaching, gardening, walking the dog, seeing friends, making something, learning something.

Your whole identity shouldn't be written on a roster.

6. Stay connected to non-medical people

Keep close to people who knew you before medicine, and people who don't need you to be useful to them.

Family, old friends, neighbours, community, school friends. These relationships help keep perspective when work becomes intense.

Connection is protection, and needs to be kept alive.

7. Build your support team before you need it

A GP. A psychologist. A mentor. An accountant. A trusted colleague. A wise friend.

You don't need them all at once, but you need to know who they are before the wheels wobble.

Good support is not a sign you're struggling. It's part of practising safely.

8. Plan for stressful moments

Some stress points in medicine are predictable, like first year, exams, internship, night shifts, competitive training entry, fellowship, moving rural, starting private practice, parenting, leadership, retirement.

Plan for them the way you would plan for a difficult case.

Before a demanding period, protect the basics, book appointments early, talk to the people around you and

decide what can be paused, delegated or simplified.

9. Practise saying "No"

Not everything deserves your nervous system.

A useful test is: do it, ditch it or delegate it.

Good time management is about deciding what is actually yours to carry. Saying "No" early, clearly and respectfully 

is a clinical skill and a health skill.

10. Take breaks before you break

Leave doesn't need to be dramatic to be restorative.

Book it early. Protect it when you can, and use short breaks properly...an overnight stay, a quiet weekend, a walk, a day offline, time with people who restore you.

Recovery works best before you're completely depleted.