Supporting our Doctors: A podcast series

Laura Hipple, Ganga Verma, and Susie Crowe  

Incivility and poor workplace behaviours can hinder psychological safety and impact team morale, effective communication and overall team performance. These permissive environments can lead to defensive practice, high stress, burnout and sickness. 

In this episode, Laura Hipple, Ganga Verma and Susie Crowe discuss the importance of promoting positive workplace behaviours in our specialty, for both staff and patient safety, and explain the impact that poor workplace behaviours can have on the workforce. Ganga and Susie share more about their role as RCOG Workplace Behaviour Advisors and offer insight into the breadth of the RCOG’s ‘Supporting our Doctors’ portfolio, including signposting to key resources that can support you throughout your career.

Ganga Verma, Katharine Backhouse and Ellie Carlisle 

In this episode, Ganga Verma speaks to Katharine Backhouse and Ellie Carlisle about their involvement in establishing wellbeing initiatives in Wessex. They outline the rationale for setting up trainee open discussion groups and running a wellbeing themed teaching day, to equip doctors with the tools they need to care for themselves and empower them to prioritise their own wellbeing. Katharine and Ellie share how these initiatives have benefited the workforce, reflect on the challenges as well as the successes and provide tips for other deaneries that may be considering similar work in their regions. 

Susie Crowe and Tom Geraghty 

In this episode, Susie Crowe talks to co-founder of Psych Safety, Tom Geraghty, about what psychological safety is and why it is important in healthcare. Susie and Tom discuss how we can cultivate psychologically safe teams in obstetrics and gynaecology by modelling psychological safety, encouraging all members of the team to ask questions, flattening the hierarchy and providing people with the space and time to reflect, communicate and contribute in their own individual way. 

Laura Hipple and Farah Siddiqui 
The RCOG is committed to working towards racial equity in the UK, through listening to our membership, raising awareness and sharing examples of good practice that can overcome differential attainment and workplace discrimination.  

In this episode, Laura Hipple and Farah Siddiqui celebrate the launch of the RCOG’s Race Equity in the Workforce resource. Farah summarises the College’s work in this area over the last three years that led to the development of an eLearning package, including gaining member insights from across the UK. This free resource, hosted on RCOG Learning, is designed to empower every member of staff, at every level, to be a part of meaningful change, not just in conversation, but also through action. Farah explains what is included in the six modules and highlights how everyone can play their part in cultivating psychologically safe environments that benefit both staff and patients.  

Laura Hipple and Kirsty Dundas 

In this episode, Laura Hipple and Kirsty Dundas discuss the value of peer support in our specialty. Kirsty shares insight into the peer support initiative  in place at NHS Lothian in Scotland, which is offered to staff affected by adverse events in obstetrics and gynaecology. Kirsty explains what peer support is and what it isn’t, provides an overview of how it was set up in NHS Lothian, and reflects on why peer support initiatives are invaluable to supporting staff. 

We'd like to give a content warning for this episode, as it touches on the themes of trauma and adverse events. If these topics are triggering for you, you may wish to listen to one of our other podcasts. 

Laura Hipple, Laura Goodfellow and Pauline Slade 

O&G staff are commonly exposed to psychologically traumatic events at work. In some cases, these experiences can trigger post-traumatic stress symptoms. In this episode, Pauline Slade explains the key set of symptoms that characterise post-traumatic stress and the impact these symptoms can have on organisations, staff and the patients in their care. Laura Goodfellow offers a detailed overview of the Good Practice Paper, which provides a framework for the prevention, identification and treatment of PTSS symptoms. She discusses how this supports employers to minimise the impact of traumatic events on staff, and ultimately to improve patient care.  

Laura and Pauline worked alongside colleagues Andrew Weeks, Kaylee Shean and Helen Spiby to co-author the RCOG Good Practice Paper on the prevention and treatment of work-related post-traumatic stress symptoms in the maternity and gynaecology workforce. In this episode, they speak to Laura Hipple about post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) in the O&G workforce and delve into the content of the paper.   

We'd like to give a content warning for this episode, which discusses themes of work-related trauma and post-traumatic stress symptoms throughout. If this topic is triggering for you, you may wish to listen to one of our other podcasts instead.