SUMMARY

The issue of physicians’ health has always been controversial. Overall society has taken for granted a false invulnerability before the illness on the part of physicians, as if their medical abilities were to bring along a magical protective shield. It might seem that their knowledge which is alien to the remaining mortals would even allow them to get the secret of permanent and eternal youth. And, of course, physicians have taken part in this collective unconscious and have always been incapable of properly assuming their condition as patients when given the situation.

Under these circumstances, when physicians get sick, they tend to overact or not to act sufficiently, in any case, reversely to their own medical endorsements. And to make things worse, they do not know how to ask for help or they are incapable of doing so. And, when the condition or impairment is psychical or relates to some kind of addiction the response is even more negationist, close to arrogance and prepotence.

Quite apart from individual factors, from the time of undergraduate training and throughout all their professional careers, the physicians are subject to significant stress degrees. High levels of academic competitiveness and self-demand, the process of ongoing continuous training and updating, the pressure of caregiving, the expectations of the patients and their families, the fear and reality of claims and demands, the mistakes and their consequences, the fact of working alone or within organizations that tend to depersonalize the doctor-patient relationship and limit the autonomy capability in decision making or self-organization of work, are all stress factors for the medical practitioners. Not to mention the phenomenon of information overload for oneself which often distort the reality and the prognosis of the disease itself and the fear of stigma on behalf of the patients and their own colleagues.

This assumes greater significance as there are many ethical values that are handled and because, ultimately, the physicians' ability to properly perform their profession is also dependent on their health. Furthermore, when it comes to mental or addictive disorders, we should not only refer to a specific problem of medical professionals, but rather, as long as it can have an impact on citizens, to a public health problem.

We must admit that in the transforming process of the medical practice new arising elements have been identified as stress generators among professionals and they must be taken into account: limited resources and government control, a lower professional status compared to that of the past, increased patients’ and families’ expectations, lawsuits and complaints, illegal use of drugs, growth of caregiving pressure, increased aging population and increasing chronic diseases, overall demand for an assistance that is kept away from risk and means of communication that often highlight the negative aspects over the positive ones.

In addition, the significant demographic changes occurred in the medical profession in the past two decades have also meant a change in risk profiles. On the one hand, a gradual feminization: over 70% of new graduates out of our faculties of medicine are women; on the other hand, the phenomenon of the immigration of doctors from other countries that, in the last five years have even surpassed the percentage of new collegiates and, finally, the progressive aging of the profession.

From the 70s, several professional and healthcare organizations have been taking awareness of the need to provide a preventative and healthcare answer with the aim of providing assistance to sick physicians and at the same time being the guarantors of a good professional practice. There are also an increasing number of studies that analyze risk factors, but also favorable situations for the development of a healthy professional practice.

In our country, the emergence of the Committee for Helping the Sick Physician promoted by the College of Physicians of Barcelona and then the Galatea Foundation of the Council of Colleges of Physicians of Catalonia, has been a great advance in the knowledge, understanding and addressing the physicians’ health problems, especially if they could obstacle a proper professional practice.

All these changes are only possible if there is a greater awareness of what should be the corporate role of the profession and, in this sense, it should also take place a cultural evolution on the part of physicians in favor of the acquisition of healthy and self-caring habits, from the time of undergraduate training and residence. At the same time, the heads of government and health organizations should be aware of the need for deep changes in the healthcare systems by promoting values, attitudes and notions that boost an optimum and healthy professional development, avoiding unnecessary stress factors that can end up by negatively affecting the quality of care.