Tidying up some papers, I came across an article I had torn from the April 2016 edition of the BMJ: \u00a0https:\/\/www.bmj.com\/content\/353\/bmj.i2207<\/p>\n
I had meant to show it to our son, James who, three months earlier, had entered Britannia Royal Naval College as an Officer Cadet. \u00a0Reading it now, it seems to be more pertinent to myself and my colleagues, than to James who, happily, is thoroughly enjoying his career.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Under-investment, ever-increasing workload, increasing rates of mental illness and burnout \u00a0… these fuel the recruitment and retention crisis, that in turn increases the workload \u00a0of the remaining GPs …<\/p>\n
… it’s a vicious circle.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
No wonder then, that morale in General Practice is very low:<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/health\/gps-nhs-two-in-five-plan-to-quite-survey-exeter-south-west-crisis-haemorrhaging-doctors-a7679166.html<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Richard Jones’ article describes how life aboard a Royal Navy warship places the morale of its crew at the heart of all that is done: the decisions that are made; and how leadership, communication, caring for people, safety, training, and a clear sense of mission all play into the morale of the crew.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I recently agreed to relinquish my Lead GP role, now that my retirement is only a few months away. \u00a0For me, the most important aspects of leadership are communication and engaging with all members of the team. \u00a0So, I spent my Lead GP session\u00a0getting to know and support the doctors, nurses and ancillary staff in the three other surgeries that had merged with Brune Medical Centre, to form The Willow Group. \u00a0Mindful of the contagion of negativism, cynicism and demoralisation within an organisation, and that “…a leader with low mood can have a negative effect,” I just hope that any benefit from my leadership approach has not been negated by my time off with work-related stress.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Recognition of the inextricable link between morale, performance and safety, is the hallmark and focus of leadership in the Royal Navy. \u00a0 Richard Jones asks: “Would a healthcare manager ever consider morale when making a decision?” \u00a0The NHS has certainly espoused leadership development, but its leaders and managers can still learn a thing to two from a Navy warship in giving equal weight to morale and operational capability when making decisions that affect the workforce.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tidying up some papers, I came across an article I had torn from the April 2016 edition of the BMJ: \u00a0https:\/\/www.bmj.com\/content\/353\/bmj.i2207 I had meant to show it to our son, James who, three months earlier, had entered Britannia Royal Naval College as an Officer Cadet. \u00a0Reading it now, it seems to be more pertinent to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}