Position paper: Doctor and medical student wellbeing
Avant media
Thursday, 27 April 2023
Healthcare professionals who are physically and mentally well are fundamental to a world-leading healthcare system. When healthcare professionals are well, they respond better to the issues they are facing, treat patients better and have less medico-legal risk.
As a doctors’ organisation, Avant has firsthand experience of the health and well-being issues that healthcare professionals face.
Avant believes that to maintain their health and well-being, doctors need to have safe workplaces and access to appropriate support and services.
Avant’s position
Avant believes in:
- playing a key role in raising awareness of health and well-being issues facing medical practitioners and students
- supporting the maintenance of good physical, mental and workplace health and well-being
- promoting appropriate responses to physical and psychosocial hazards in the workplace
- assisting medical practitioners and students to access relevant health services
- advocating strongly for properly funded, nationally consistent Doctors’ Health Advisory Services
- collaborating with and supporting those who have their own well-being programmes
- taking a proactive approach to well-being, to prevent stress from becoming distress and impairment
- focussing on prevention but having systems in place to help members who need assistance
- maximising the health and well-being of medical practitioners and students
- advocating for medical practitioners with medical conditions to only have registration conditions imposed if they pose a risk to the public.
Avant’s support
Avant supports the well-being of healthcare professionals by:
- providing access to the Well-Being Index in partnership with Beamtree
- providing assistance through the Avant Medico-legal Advisory Service and the Avant personal support program
- advocating on behalf of health professionals in submissions to government on issues which impact healthcare professionals
- meeting with Ahpra and other regulatory bodies to ensure that regulators are focussed on the impact which claims and complaints have on the well-being of healthcare professionals.