Australian Doctor Australian Doctor 3rd November 2017 | Page 28

Gut Feelings
It’s time for family medicine to
get more family-friendly
D
Guest
Editorial
Dr Bob Vickers
28
OCTORS are notori-
ously bad at allocating
time between family,
friends, self-care, sleep
and work. We tend to allocate more
hours to work at the expense of the
others.
Registrars have the added bonus of
having to include study time, usually
again leading to the loss of important
time with family and friends.
But what happens when the bal-
ance needs to shift back, not by
choice but by necessity? You can take
leave or a holiday from work, but
you can’t put a pregnancy on hold or
leave a newborn baby at home.
I am writing this from the posi-
tion of a father-to-be, in the thick of
exams and working full-time.
I am beginning to feel the push
back from work to family, although
I have the luxury of not having to
wake up and vomit so I know my
situation is better than others.
And, although I would like to, I do
not have to attend regular antenatal
appointments and scans.
Regardless, the family slice of my
time-commitment pie has grown.
I have heard many a story from
other registrars who have lost pre-
cious time with a new baby due to
work and study commitments.
I know of registrars who are
returning to work potentially too
early, purely because the financial
stress is too much.
With a cluster of junior doctors
tragically taking their lives in recent
| Australian Doctor | 3 November 2017
years, we have seen a long overdue
focus on the welfare of doctors in
training.
With regard to supporting those
who are struggling, GP registrars are
well supported by organisations such
as General Practice Registrars Aus-
tralia, the colleges and their regional
training or