Welcome to a new series about compassion fatigue and burnout where i will be speaking to a number of doctors about their journey and tips on recognition and recovery.

In this episode I have had the pleasure of speaking with Dr Kimberly Doolan, a General Practitioner based in England, UK. This was such a wholesome sharing of events between the two of us, and i certainly felt a sense of relief and appreciation for all that Dr Kimberly shared.

As GP’s we can often feel that we are responsible for our patients not being able to access us when they want to, or guilty if we can't see them. Through her counseling she was reminded how it isn’t our fault that there is not enough capacity to satisfy demand, and i thought that was a beautiful reminder. 

Dr Kimberly mentions a incredible service for doctors working in London called the 'Practitioner Health Programme', of which she reached out when experiencing symptoms of compassion fatigue and burnout. She had an interesting experience whereby she didn't quite get the management she was expecting, but instead was advised to take several weeks off work and then go into counselling later on.

Her story is an inspiring one and i thoroughly enjoyed our conversation. We hope that the experiences shared in this podcast can help others going through these experiences and can offer insight as a form of prevention.

You can find Dr Doolan on instagram @doctorkimberley. She has a very informative page and is a total meme queen.

If you are a doctor and are interested in being a guest on the show, please get in touch, it would be lovely to hear from you. Or, if you are a psychologist trained in burnout / compassion fatigue interested in being a guest to discuss these topics please also get in touch :-)

My contact details are:

Instagram: @Todaywithdrlucia

Email: [email protected]