7 responses to “Stress First Aid as a form of Peer Support”

  1. Wow! What an amazing article. I really appreciate the summary pictogram (way to go Caroline Dance!) and the use of the military stress continuum. Will try using that with my team and recognizing when I’m drifting to the yellow so that I can offload to stay in the green.

  2. This is very helpful. I already do most of this, and having it written out clearly and succinctly will help me share it with my team and model more effectively. We all need to keep this on the radar, and this is a very helpful reminder.

  3. I think we need a peer-to-peer mentorship program for all interested physicians,not just rural ones. This time of crisis and acute change in health care systems ,with the emerging possibilty of talking about our vulnerabiilty makes this the perfect moment to get one started. Anyone interested?

  4. Thanks, this is a great summary and I definitely found myself working through this and on these continuums. This puts into words what has been running through my head. Thank you for the helpful suggestions to focus on what to do to help as well.

  5. Hi Julie Martz–I love the idea of a peer-to-peer mentorship program. Lets chat–joannacheek@gmail.com

  6. I appreciate this article. But am also conscious of how primary care is currently organized in BC, where there are no real teams at which to have such conversation and no way to share work that would not reduce income. I suspect that we will see even more people leaving community-based, longitudinal primary care environments and more family doctors choosing to work in specialized areas where they have the support of a real team who can provide the supports and processes described.

  7. I like this idea a lot and I am interested in having a framework to use for checking in and naming the ways stress affects our functioning. Usually when I seek support my physician colleagues are happy to provide it but very reluctant to receive it – an interesting commentary on the culture.
    But what to do when “green” sounds totally unrealistic… does anyone in medicine actually ever get to feel that way? I have internalized the belief that if I’m in “green” I’m not pulling my weight in the healthcare system. I would feel guilty for my paycheque if I was having “fun”.
    Like a previous article on “presenteeism” in physician culture, this all makes sense, yet feels completely unrealistic in my remote primary care setting, where the luxury of setting boundaries on my time is simply an impossibility. The impacts of forced absenteeism during the pandemic, for coughs and sniffles and possible covid contacts, have only proven how disruptive it is to the small and fragile team, and to the patients, to reduce one’s workload.
    The silver lining? At least, like in the military, the experience of shared adversity binds me deeply to my colleagues.

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