When Work Hurts

Racism and racial inequality continues to plague the NHS - with negative outcomes for individual staff, but also for organisations and patients. To get to grips with this issue, and how to tackle it, Dr Paula Redmond speaks to Owen Chinembiri. Owen is Senior Implementation Lead at the NHS Race & Health Observatory - but is chatting today in a personal capacity. As you might imagine racism and...

Being a doctor and a patient can be a challenge. Not only do you have to deal with your illness, but you also need to deal with the identity conflicts this can create. In this episode Dr Paula Redmond talks to GP, coach and writer Dr Claire Davies about her experience as a doctor-patient when she was diagnosed with Lupus. And how it didn't fit her narrative at all. You can find Claire at her websi...

Being treated rudely at work can have a horrible impact on us. Unfortunately it's an all too common experience if you work in healthcare. And the consequences can reach far beyond the individual - affecting teams and patient care. In today's episode Paula talks to Dr Chris Turner (Consultant in Emergency Medicine and co-founder of Civility Saves Lives) about his work understanding and tackling inc...

If you were running a marathon or doing any kind of athletic training it's unlikely you'd start without a warm up or end without cooling down. And it's the same with being compassionate in healthcare work - you need to warm up your compassion muscles, and cool down at the end of your working day or shift. In this bonus episode Dr Chris Irons takes Dr Paula Redmond and you through an exercise you c...

Compassion is a big buzzword right now in healthcare, but what does it really mean and how can you actually be more compassionate? This week Paula is joined by clinical psychologist Dr Chris Irons, an expert in Compassionate Mind Training. The pair examine what compassion is, why it matters and how it can be applied within organisations and teams as well as on a personal level. Chris discusses why...

Staff wellbeing initiatives - like yoga classes - can feel like a cynical move by employers to paper over the cracks of the very serious issues affecting staff. But wellbeing is imporant - not just for healthcare workers themselves, but for patients too. Dr Peter Donnelly is a consultant paediatric intensivist at the Royal Hospital For Children in Glasgow, as well as being the Chair of the Wellbei...

Art therapy in healthcare settings has traditionally been used to support patients. But it's also a practice being used with doctors struggling with burnout. In this episode Dr Paula Redmond chats to Megan Tjasink, Lead Art Psychotherapist in Cancer and Palliative Services, at Barts Health NHS Trust in London. She talks about her work with doctors and how art therapy and creative practice can help...

In this bonus episode Work Psychologist Ross McIntosh takes Dr Paula Redmond and you through an ACT exercise called "Passengers On The Bus" to help identify unhelpful mind chatter. Click here for the accompanying handout.

Disconnecting from work can be a real struggle for many people working in healthcare -which can have a huge impact on our mental health. In this episode Dr Paula Redmond speaks to work psychologist Ross McIntosh about about bringing contextual behavioural science and ACT to the workplace - particularly around disconnecting from work. Ross guides Paula (and you) through a useful exercise (the ACT M...

Emily Moorhouse is a public health nurse. But in March 2020 she was working in nurse. At the time she thought it was her dream job, but as the pandemic hit the UK she began to struggle with her mental health. In this episode Emily talks to Dr Paula Redmond about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, how she took time off to recover and eventually made a career change. Emily also mentions how she go...

Welcome to Season 2 of the When Work Hurts podcast. We start this second series of conversations with a look at moral injury. It's a term we've come to hear a lot recently, so to get a fuller understanding of what moral injury is I chat to health psychologist and expert in moral injury amongst healthcare workers, Dr Esther Murray. Esther's book is The Mental Health and Wellbeing of Healthcare Prac...

Dame Clare Gerada is known as the Doctor's Doctor. She's the medical director and founder of Practitioner Health and as well as chair of the charity Doctors In Distress. She's also the president of the Royal College of GPs and a practising GP in south London. In this episode you'll hear her thoughts on what the pandemic has been like for GPs and the unique pressures they have felt. If you want to...

Jan Bostock is a consultant clinical psychologist who works in the Northeast and Cumbria Wellbeing Hub for health and social care staff. She's also a key figure in the development of the Power Threat Meaning Framework (BPS, 2018), and is co-chair of the British Psychological Society committee for the Framework. As well as reflecting on her experiences of the pandemic we also discuss how issue...

Dr. Heidi Edmundson is a consultant in emergency medicine at the Whittington Hospital in London. She actively campaigns to "make wellbeing a thing" for hospital staff - through addressing barriers to basic needs such as taking breaks and access to hot food. She has also introduced creative tools and techniques to foster wellbeing amongst teams. In this episode we explore these initiatives and why...

When work and life hurts being able to talk about how we feel and have those feelings heard and validated can make a huge difference to how we navigate and survive trauma. For those working on the front line, during the COVID pandemic, this has never been more important. I spoke with Claire Goodwin-Fee a psychotherapist who set up an organisation called Frontline19 to respond to this. Frontline19...

Over the last couple of years many people have been reflecting on how closely our working lives are aligned with our values. For health professionals in particular the gap between how we want things to be, and how they are, can cause huge distress. I talk about this and other topics with consultant clinical psychologist Dr. Joe Oliver who is an expert in acceptance and commitment therapy as well a...

Staff in intensive care have found themselves right at the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this episode I speak to Dr Rosie Baruah, a consultant in critical care medicine and anesthesia at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh, about the pressures faced by those working to look after the sickest patients. We covered a range of subjects around working through the pandemic, including burnout...

Doctors, nurses and allied health professionals are experiencing unprecedented levels of distress due to their work. Join clinical psychologist Dr Paula Redmond as she talks to inspiring clinicians and thought leaders about the stories behind the mental health statistics, and how compassion, connection and creativity can offer hope when work hurts. Follow the podcast so you don't miss an epis...