How a peer support group for BIPOC physicians supports health system resilience

A career in medicine is gratifying and can also be challenging when dealing with emotional distress experienced on the job and administrative work that can become overwhelming. For physicians who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC), there are also lived experiences of racial inequities – both individual and on a systemic level – to contend with which can affect them in overt and subtle ways.

Unpacking unique challenges faced by BIPOC physicians

The Physician Health Program’s (PHP) BIPOC Peer Support Program provides participating doctors with a safe, virtual community to share their experiences, discuss challenges, and use their own ancestral practices as the basis to help foster a more humane and inclusive health system. The facilitated group speaks about BIPOC challenges and opportunities that exist in topics such as setting personal and professional boundaries, physician as leader, the personal health impacts of racialization, and intergenerational resilience across cultures. Co-founder and co-facilitatator Dr Rahul Gupta’s years of professional training in trauma-sensitive care led him to consider his background, as a child of Indian immigrants, in a new way. 

This process helped him reflect on how the intergenerational impacts of trauma in racialized groups can impact life in the present. A discussion with fellow co-founder and co-facilitator Dr Anne Nguyen provided the spark to create the support group. She described seeing a pattern emerging – numerous phone calls coming to the PHP from healthcare workers who are racialized, and are either experiencing racism, or experiencing challenges that are showing up in their own personal lives.

Creating a resilient and thriving community 

The sense of safety, connection, and community fostered in the group has been praised by many participants.

“People felt the impact of just normalizing their experiences. Racial experiences can be obvious but also subtle, like an invisible stressor that is hard to make sense of. Normalizing people's experiences lets people think: ‘Okay, I'm not alone’.”

In the future, Drs Gupta and Nguyen hope to see the group continue to evolve, to spread that sense of belonging and safety and create a positive ripple effect throughout the system.

“In this group setting, we normalize that this is important for everyone to do to support our own well-being and our sustainability. We're more likely to continue working and staying in the communities that we live in, which ultimately means we're serving our communities better and helping to positively shape the system. Our hope is that people more and more start to feel that they can bring their whole self to the work.”

Registering for the 2025 BIPOC Peer Support group sessions

Physicians can choose between two cohorts this year, the first running from February 6-27 and the second from May 27-June 17. Individuals in each cohort will participate in a four-week series of 90-minute virtual sessions led by Drs Gupta and Nguyen. Visit the registration and information page on the PHP website to find out more.

This BIPOC Peer Support Group is possible thanks to funding from Scotiabank, MD Financial Management Inc., and the Canadian Medical Association as part of the Physician Wellness+ Initiative, which aims to address the urgent and ongoing health and wellness needs of physicians and medical learners.