Building Resilience for GPs, Practice Managers and Nurses.
14 May 2015
Last month, myself and Louise Kiteley of Coaching Innovations ran a one-day interactive and practical session called Take Time Out - building resilience, managing change and working differently.
This well attended session saw GPs, Practice Managers and Senior Nurses come along to take stock of their skills, approaches and look at new ways of problem solving and dealing with the relentless pressures in primary care.
The following interview with Dr Chris Hewitt (Leicester, Leicestershire & Rutland Local Medical Committee) explores what we learnt, and observed, during the day.
Q: What did we cover during the day that you think was particularly powerful for people?
Seeing GPs, Practice Managers and Practice Nurses having the headspace to think, to share experiences and ideas with colleagues with similar roles, challenges and environments, was enormously energising and uplifting. From the feedback it is clear that this experience was shared by course participants. I found it particularly powerful to gain more insight and to learn more about how my personal preferences around how I learn and communicate (and the preferences of those around me) influences how we all cope and look out for ourselves and each other.
Q: What do you think people particularly struggle with regarding ‘resilience’?
The i-resilience model was interesting - the need for a balance of confidence, social support, purposefulness and adaptability in order to endure and thrive, although on first inspection was clearly common sense, deeper review provided a clear framework for where as an individual we might be neglecting an area that could make us more vulnerable. Social support is particularly neglected. People put on a brave face or bottle things up, and we are wary of asking colleagues or networks for support to help deal with challenges and adverse situations.
Q: What is it about ‘change’ that can cause a lot of difficulty?
William Bridges transition model highlighted that the physical changes we overcome, do require a catching up of psychological buy in, with acceptance and change to pre-existing familiarity and habits which is required to go through the ’neutral zone’ of transition. What was particularly interesting is that accepting and adapting to change - new premises or patient access systems - then requires people to ‘transition’ in their behaviours, working patterns and psychological acceptance, all of which occurs at different rates in different individuals.
The session was financially supported by the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Local Medical Committee and the Central Nottinghamshire Clinical Service.
Attendees said:
- "Enjoyable, constructive. Having the headspace and tools to think laterally around work issues, impactful."
- "Opportunity to work with different folk/groups, really helpful."
- "Great course – well-presented and facilitated."
