Anxiety

A moderate amount of anxiety and stress is good.

Remember the stress-performance bell-shaped curve:

Stress performance bell-shaped curve

It is natural to feel anxious when first starting a job, especially when it is your first ever job as a doctor.

It takes about 6 months to settle in a new job, so having 10 or 13 week rotations means we never really settle.

As stress/anxiety increases, your performance increases – up to a certain point. After that it becomes counterproductive.

What can you do about anxiety?

Self Assessment Tools

Take one of our self assessment tools to gauge your level of stress:

ProQOL Questionnaire

Kessler Questionnaire

 

An initiative of the Doctors’ Health Advisory Service (NSW), the Medical Benevolent Association, the AMA Doctors in Training Group, the Resident Medical Officers’ Associations, the Australian Medical Students’ Association, the Clinical Education and Training Institute and the NSW Employee Assistance Program with funding from the Medical Board of NSW (2009).