ABSTRACT
Once in the Foundation years, one will find that clinical work and postgraduate medical education and training can be stressful, but of course it provides necessary opportunities for positive personal and professional development. Stress-related symptoms are ubiquitous and intermittent, even when they do not become severe enough to lead to depression or drug abuse. Prolonged symptoms can lead to professional burnout, which is characterised by emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation, detachment, and a low sense of personal accomplishment and job satisfaction. A number of factors intersect to maintain the fiction that junior doctors do not fall ill, including: the perceived stigma of illness; crossing the line into patient territory as an unwanted identity construction; inability to experience illness as an opportunity for insight rather than a nuisance; fear of disclosure of illness to colleagues as a sign of weakness or failure; and perceived lack of support when ill.
