Therapy sessions offered to doctors to combat stress

Doctors from St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London have been attending art therapy groups to combat stress.

During the six-week weekly therapy programme, doctors create and talk about artwork helping them to manage the stress they have to deal with when caring for patients with cancer.

The programme comes after studies have shown that up to 70 per cent of oncologists experience burnout, which can potentially impact patient safety.

The six-week sessions were initially launched in 2015, and due to its popularity and success, the sessions are now running regularly.

Charles Knight, managing director at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, said: “These sessions are about providing support to our fantastic doctors, who do a remarkable job caring for our patients. We understand that the work they do can be emotionally challenging and we hope these therapy sessions can help them deal with some of the stresses that naturally come with the job.”

Dr Gehan Soosaipilla, St Bartholomew’s Hospital, added: “Being an oncologist is immensely rewarding and rightfully the focus is on improving patient care, but it is easy to ignore how stressful and challenging the day-to-day job can be and how this can impact practice. Initially, for myself, the art therapy sessions were a means of artistic expression and creativity, and also a welcome break from the routine, but as we completed each session I felt more resilient, more confident in sharing experiences with my colleagues and very much looking forward to the next session."