1.
How to be a resilient doctor in the
21st
century
Care for generations preconference

2.
• 21st
century global and local health
challenges
• How to become a resilient doctor and a
medical leader
• Your legacy – how to use your medical
career to make a difference

3.
“First, do no harm …”
Not only do no harm to our patients
It is also about protecting the wellbeing
of our families, our colleagues, our
environment and ourselves

4.
Who is the most famous Czech
person ever?
• Good King Wenceslaus
• Franz Kafka
• Antonin Dvorak
• Martina Navratilova

5.
Vaclav Havel
Playwright, poet, dissident, politician, global humanitarian
Last president of Czechoslovakia (1989–1992)
First president of the Czech Republic (1993–2003)
“The salvation of this human world lies nowhere else
than in the human heart, in the human power to
reflect, in human meekness and human
responsibility.”

6.
Challenges you will face
• Tackling the challenges of inequity:
- inequity of access to health care
- inequity of outcomes of health care
• How do we work to ensure that high quality
health care is available to all people in
every nation of the world, including those
who are disadvantaged and marginalised?

7.
How to be a resilient doctor
• If we are going to achieve wonderful
things with our lives we need to be
resilient
• Resilience is the ability to remain strong
and to grow stronger when facing
adversity

8.
6 ways to be a resilient doctor
1. Value strong relationships

9.
• Take time every day to nurture healthy
relationships with your patients and your
colleagues.

10.
• “Be caring and curious about your
patients’ stories.”
– Dr Faith Fitzgerald

11.
6 ways to be a resilient doctor
1. Value strong relationships
2. Make home a sanctuary

12.
Time out
• Make an appointment with yourself
• Time out
• to think
• and reflect
• and rest
• and re-energise

13.
6 ways to be a resilient doctor
1. Value strong relationships
2. Make your home a sanctuary
3. Recognise conflict as an opportunity

14.
• “Honest differences are often a healthy
sign of progress.”
– Gandhi

15.
6 ways to be a resilient doctor
1. Value strong relationships
2. Make your home a sanctuary
3. Recognise conflict as an opportunity
4. Stand up for what is right

16.
“To sin by silence when they should protest,
makes cowards out of good men.”
– Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

17.
6 ways to be a resilient doctor
1. Value strong relationships
2. Make your home a sanctuary
3. Recognise conflict as an opportunity
4. Stand up for what is right
5. Have your own doctor

18.
• “A physician who treats himself (or herself)
has a fool for a patient.”
– Sir William Osler (1849-1919)

19.
6 ways to be a resilient doctor
1. Value strong relationships
2. Make your home a sanctuary
3. Recognise conflict as an opportunity
4. Stand up for what is right
5. Have your own doctor
6. Create your legacy

20.
• “I don’t know what your destiny will be but
one thing I do know.
• “The only ones among you who will be
really happy are those who have sought
and found how to serve.”

21.
Dr Albert Schweitzer
Nobel Peace Prize
1952
• “I don’t know what your destiny will be but
one thing I do know.
• “The only ones among you who will be
really happy are those who have sought
and found how to serve.”

22.
“Change will not come if we wait for some
other person or some other time. We
are the ones we've been waiting for. We
are the change that we seek.”

23.
“With great power comes great
responsibility”

24.
“With great power comes great
responsibility”
Spiderman

25.
Aims
1. Continue to expand the role of family medicine
in strengthening primary health care and
working towards universal coverage in every
country
2. Strengthen our important work with the World
Health Organization at global and regional level
3. Expand WONCA’s presence by supporting the
development of family medicine in more low-
and middle-income countries.

26.
AIMS
4. Support our young family medicine leaders,
the future of our profession.
5. Celebrate the many achievements of family
doctors around the world.
6. Reinforce the role of family medicine in
providing high quality primary care to all people
in each of our countries, especially those who
are marginalised and the most vulnerable.

27.
• Each of us has the potential to contribute our
own lasting legacy through the examples that we
set in the way that we live our lives
• Each of us has a set of values and principles
which determine how we behave as ethical
medical practitioners
• In creating our legacy we can also discover
ways to build our resilience

28.
It is amazing where your medical
career can take you
Things I didn’t know 30 years ago

29.
5 ways to make a difference in the
impact of your career
1. Identify the qualities you admire in your role
models, mentors and colleagues and adopt
them as your own.

30.
5 ways to make a difference in the
impact of your career
2. Uphold your integrity in everything you do.

31.
5 ways to make a difference in the
impact of your career
3. Develop goals for all aspects of your life
- your spiritual life
- your physical and mental health
- your career
- your relationships with other people, especially
those who love you and provide you with
support.

32.
5 ways to make a difference in the
impact of your career
4. Provide support to your colleagues
– the people who work alongside you every day
and who share your commitment to delivering
the highest possible quality care to the people
who trust you for their health care and advice.

33.
5 ways to make a difference in the
impact of your career
5. Find the meaning and the purpose in your
everyday work
- and discover and then rediscover every day of
your life the joy and the privilege of being a
doctor.