Support and wellbeing

Support and wellbeing

Training can be stressful and challenging and life stressors can add to pressures trainees face. Your first point of contact should be your educational supervisor, but SESSA also has a number of support and wellbeing initiatives to assist.

 
 

Wellbeing committee

There is a SESSA wellbeing committee that meets on a regular basis throughout the year to deal with welfare and wellbeing matters. They aim to improve wellbeing for all anaesthetists in SESSA and have some influence to support any local wellbeing issues you are struggling with.

The SESSA trainee's committee also has wellbeing committee members who sit on the SESSA wellbeing committee and are a good point of contact for raising issues.

 

Wellbeing resources

A list of local and national resources including crisis resources within SESSA.
  • Wellbeing & Support Available (local & national) including CRISIS resources (login)
 

Anaesthetic families

All SESSA trainees are allocated to a "family", with consultant parents. This group of colleagues can be a source of information, support and fun. Many families have regular socials and get together as a team for the annual SESSA Christmas quiz. If you seem to have been left out, contact Dr Andrew Grant.
  • Anaesthetic Families 2023 (login)
 

Mentoring

SESSA offer mentoring where trainees can be linked with trained mentors to explore your own opportunities/dilemmas at a key transition point in your training. This is separate from your educational and clinical supervision and facilitates you to set goals for your development. Mentoring is run by Dr Deirdre Conway and she can be contacted for more information.
  • Trained Mentors in SESSA (login)
  • BJA Education article on mentoring (login)
 

Coffee and a gas

Friendly, open conversations are an important way to help us share worries and reduce stress. This is an Association of Anaesthetists initiative to find time to meet with colleagues and "get it off your chest". Each department will have a nominated person who organises regular meetings, usually monthly. If your department's one seems to have lapsed, why not try to revive it?
 

On call facilities

Each hospital should have on call facilities for you to rest during night shifts. Each hospital has different arrangements and facilities and you will be told about the specific facilities at induction but it should at lease include somewhere to sleep at night when you are not working.

The peripheral hospitals (BGH and Fife) offer accommodation that can be booked in advance where you can stay during a run of on call shifts to save you from commuting after long shifts. Each site will give you specific information on how this works.