Being a good doctor shouldn’t mean sacrificing everything but work

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By Dr Sarah Coope

To keep up with ever more demanding jobs, doctors are often forced to shortchange many other aspects of life. It doesn't have to be that way, says Dr Sarah Coope.

A doctor completes a full clinic, sorts abnormal results that can't wait, spends twenty minutes propping up a junior colleague who's having a wobble, then makes three difficult decisions before lunch that she won't even remember making by the time she gets home. To anyone at work, she appears to be operating perfectly – nobody would question her competence, not for a second.

What if your performance at work is only being maintained because you're stripping the energy out of everything else?

Then she gets home and there’s nothing left. She can't face cooking or concentrating on her partner’s run-down of their day, finds herself asking them to repeat themselves over and over. She cancels the run she promised herself and, instead, spends the evening scrolling, because even choosing what to watch feels like too much effort.