Q&A with Louise Welldon, Clinical Nurse Consultant

1. Would you say you pay attention to your Wellness?

I think I’m quite conscious of my personal Wellness these days and knowing how important it is. However, I think it’s an ongoing challenge for me to create and sustain good habits.  I know what I should be doing, but I know I’m not doing them that well.  I think I’ve incorporated mindfulness techniques well into my everyday life, but I’d like to incorporate more scheduled mindfulness such as more regular meditation

2. What is your experience of how your wellness at work translates into how you do your job? 

I think I have adopted a few good strategies to be well at work, such as eating regularly, going to the bathroom when I need to, but I know I’ve still got a long way to go. Taking breaks and going home on time are a couple of things I know I need to do better.  I think I’m naturally harsh on myself, but I have adopted good mindfulness strategies to manage negative feelings, which gets me back to a more positive head space.  I’d like to incorporate some more positive affirmations to remind myself that ‘I can only do what I can do; and not everything is on me to fix’.

3. Do you think you can tell when your teammates are well (or unwell)? How does this affect the service you deliver as a team? How does it affect your enjoyment of your shift?

I often think I’m not very perceptive to the subtleties of my teammate moods. I often get ‘in the work zone’ and go full throttle. I think I can recognise when a teammate is more outwardly down. I like to be approachable and supportive to all staff and I think a team responds more positively when they know their leaders are there to help them. 

I think team dynamics can be very susceptible to unwell staff.  In cases of a staff member struggling or experiencing hard times, the team will usually rally around to provide friendship and suggest they seek objective support.  I think team dynamics can also be very susceptible to unwell staff in instances of negativity or complacency, which can pull the team down and have a negative impact on the enjoyment of a shift.

4. Can you give us one idea of something you have done at work (or would like to do) to promote staff wellness in any way?

We’ve previously introduced mindful meditation into our nursing scrum but due to COVID and workplace restrictions we’ve had to convert nursing scrum to a TEAMS forum.  This has affected mindful meditation as we’re not in a room together which seemed to be a valuable component of group meditation. We’ve tried using TEAMS for group meditation but it’s quite removed and doesn’t have the same impact.  I’m hoping to reintroduce MM to nursing scrum once COVID restrictions are not part of our reality.