When you are a doctor one of the major challenges is about belonging to the ‘medical community’. As a junior, staff grade or consultant, you are also part of a part of that community of hospital doctors.
Being part of a community is very important in relation to the way you deal with the day to day stresses and workload of your job in a hospital. Members of any community support and understand one another. The concept of ‘community’ means belonging to one of the many different groups you are part of: it might mean your neighborhood, your friends, your family, your religion, your country or your professional group.
Most people belong to several different communities and being part of a community is part of having a balanced life.
Whatever community you are part of will have its own culture which you recognise, learn and are part of: it may be the way you dress, the language you use, or the way you behave towards each other.
As a hospital doctor you get to learn those aspects until you know it instinctively. Initially you had to learn the rules until the culture became part of you and was internalised so you knew what to do, how to behave and could easily recognise someone who was also part of the same community.
One of the big challenges of changing jobs during your training is moving into different hospital communities and learning the way things are done in a new environment with different colleagues and having the confidence to ask, observe and learn the ways to behave there. When you do this you will feel part of that new community and your experiences will be more positive than if you resist learning new ways.
It might be as simple as changing the way you dress or lowering or raising your expectations of the way people respond to you.
Is this something you’ve recognised and experienced?
Susan Kersley is a retired doctor and life coach.
Tags: Workplace
