Stern, Maryse <br/><br/>
Psychological Support of Resident Doctors in a Palliative Care Unit 

 -  2006.<br/>							 
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<br/><br/> This article insists on the need to recognize resident physicians as learners in the field of interpersonal relations. It recommends that they should be accompanied, individually or in peer groups, on their site of work. In palliative care units, they experience difficult situations in their relation to themselves, their patients and their families, and to the health care team. This support prevents emotional exhaustion by fostering their questioning (on their roles, their ideal values and representations) while clarifying their resources and their limits. It gives them the opportunity of creating a “distant proximity” with their patients, and showing them other leads for further work in taking up their new duties. In addition, sensitization to group dynamics helps them to locate themselves in the complexity of family dynamics and to remain efficient.To understand the phenomena at play within a health care team is also an asset, enabling them to take their place within it better, and preparing them to play their part in well understood interdisciplinarity. The third-party position of the psychologist creates a safe space where no stakes are involved, facilitates expression, and offers the opportunity for reflective time. The creation and the development of such spaces are of primary importance.