Surviving and Thriving in Health Practice

I am a full- time practising family practitioner and children’s palliative care specialist doctor working in the UK. I have also spent some years working in Uganda and other sub- Saharan African countries. I enjoy teaching, writing and mentoring. I am a medical student tutor at the University of Oxford, a trainer in general practice, and I have designed and set up children’s palliative care courses for health professionals in the UK and Africa. I have worked with ‘failing practices’ to help them turn round; and also with health professionals who are struggling (as we all do from time to time). I have always had an interest in philosophy and spirituality, and have studied this at postgraduate level. I have carried out some research into education and training of health professionals around the world and I continue to explore that interest. I have previously written two books: Children’s Palliative Care in Africa (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009) and the Association for Children’s Palliative Care (ACT) Handbook of Children’s Palliative Care for GPs (Bristol: ACT, 2011). I particularly enjoy reading and writing poetry. At heart, though, I am a practitioner and a generalist. What is more, as you can probably see, I am rather a jack of all trades, and a master of none. I have been motivated to write this book as I am hoping to explore practical ways of practising health that help us all, patients and practitioners alike, to become a little more healthy, and a little more whole.