Dr Leslie Rourke
Do your family or friends ever remark that you are “married” to your practice? Have you ever been ready to leave for an evening out when your patient/friend calls with a medical emergency? Do you ever feel uncomfortable being the physician for friends and colleagues? Relationship boundary issues pose one of the greatest challenges facing rural health practitioners and their families. The objectives of this session are: 1) to increase awareness of relationship issues for rural health practitioners, spouses, and families, 2) to increase communication between rural practitioners and spouses about relationship issues, 3) to discuss problem resolution including establishing functional boundaries for personal and professional life, and 4) To develop methods to teach relationship issues to others such as health care students and trainees. After some introductory remarks, small group discussion using case scenarios will be used. Interactive discussion and sharing of problems and solutions has made this workshop popular in the past.
This workshop is intended for both rural physicians/health practitioners and their spousal partners.