Your last issue focused on mental health including the mental health of doctors.1
As a response to severe mental health problems suffered by colleagues, we approached the Scottish Poetry Library with the idea of producing a little book of poetry to act as a companion and comfort to new doctors when they begin their work.
The result was Tools of the Trade, a book of short, accessible poems that all relate in some way to the experience of being a new doctor, which is given to all new Scottish doctors at graduation.2 The poems are divided into sections, ‘Looking after yourself’, ‘Looking after others’, ‘Beginnings’, ‘Being with illness’, and ‘Endings’.
The book has been well received and we are now exploring ways of expanding the project and encouraging more young doctors to use poetry as a way of connecting with their creativity and compassion.
More information about Tools of the Trade is available on the Scottish Poetry Library website (http://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/) and in an article in the journal Education for Primary Care,3 and we will be sharing our experiences of the book at the RCGP conference in October.
- © British Journal of General Practice 2017