Michael Kidd launches 'The Universal Doctor' stories

The Universal Doctor:
Doctors writing about humanity and resilience in medicine. What is your story?

Now available as a free eBook on the WONCA website
Following the release of our book ‘First Do no harm: being a resilient doctor in the 21st century’, my co-author Leanne Rowe and I asked some inspirational doctors how they transcend adversity and continue to care for their patients, their families and their own spiritual, mental and physical health in times of immense stress. ‘The Universal Doctor’ was created after we discovered that many of them use writing as a powerful outlet for the inevitable pressures at work.

The doctors’ stories in ‘The Universal Doctor’ are honest, poignant and diverse, and from them a number of themes about resilience emerged, which have formed the sections of this book on:

• Seek inspiration and support from mentors and role models
• Debrief often about loss and death
• Focus on the quality of patient care
• Advocate against disadvantage
• Remain curious about humanity.

The optimistic messages in each chapter are for doctors at all stages of their careers, and everyone else involved in the health system - nursing and allied health professionals, medical practice and hospital staff and their patients and families - because the search for resilience and humanity is shared by us all.

'The Universal Doctor’ is presented an example of the power of doctors’ stories. We are seeking more stories from family doctors from around the world to contribute to a new edition on humanity, human rights and resilience. Please send your piece of writing (no more than 2000 words) to us for consideration for volume two to: admin@medicalconsulting.com.au

Professor Michael Kidd
WONCA President