Managing Your Emotions course for GPs

This session explains the importance of doctors managing their own emotions in the consultation, and suggests some ways that this can be done.

This session was reviewed by Khyati Bakhai and last updated in June 2018.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this session you will be able to:

• Develop a professional approach to managing your emotions in general practice
• Recognise a wide range of emotions that a GP may experience
• Identify potential causes of emotional stress in practice
• Reflect upon the range and causes of your own emotional reactions
• Acquire a range of measures and skills to protect you against emotional stress
• Demonstrate an understanding of the potential benefits of a GP’s emotional self-awareness to empathy and clinical insight

Being a doctor is potentially more stressful than belonging to any other profession. At every stage of your career you will come into contact with patients whose situations are harrowing and who are themselves often in states of extreme emotional arousal.