Wellness Week 2019
7th – 13th April 2019 #EMWW19
WRaP EM is proud to support Wellness Week 2019. Once again we have collaborated with the team at the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) and the ALiEM Wellness Think Tank in North America to conduct Wellness Week from 7th to the 13th of April 2019. Wellness Week in Australia and New Zealand is proudly supported by the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) and the College of Emergency Nursing Australia (CENA).
In 2018, Wellness Week (WW) focussed on strategies for improving individual wellbeing.
For WW 2019, WRaP EM aims to evolve the conversation beyond the individual. There is now increasing evidence to suggest that the main factors contributing towards burnout in physicians and nurses lie at the interface where the individual physician and health organization connect3.
One might argue that there is in fact often a disconnect between what organisations want from physicians and nurses, and what physicians and nurses want from organisations. Physician and nurse burnout influences quality of care, patient safety, physician turnover, and patient satisfaction. Organisations, therefore, have a responsibility to work with physicians and nurses to understand their needs and invest in efforts to reduce physician and nurse burnout and to promote engagement as this will directly affect the productivity of the organisation.1
During WW 2019 we will aim to provide health care staff with a framework that might help identify local departmental and organisational issues and then help build solutions. Watch this space for more information. As a starting point refer to:
- “How to” create a wellness interest group (WIG)
- “How to” – Wellness charter
- “How to” perform a wellness needs analysis in you ED
In 2019, we also want to put the focus on the “P” in WRaP, and we also want to consider performance at an organisational level.
What is optimal performance?
There are a number of ways to define optimal performance in those of us who work in health.
One way to consider optimal performance is to look at the concept in a work-related context only – measured in our ability to give comprehensive, consistent, high quality care across the spectrum of patients that we see every day.
Another way is to view the clinician as a living a ‘high performing life’ – a life set up to help that person thrive both at and outside of work.
WRaP EM proposes the following novel approach: viewing the high performer as someone who has optimal work life integration; someone who aims to provide excellent patient care but also has good self-care; someone who aims to have an effective and compassionate interactions with their patients and co-workers but also their family and friends outside of work.
At its most basic, it is a healthcare workers who can keep their patients well and their pot plant well too!
How is performance linked to wellness?
Having the skills to regulate your stress response helps to optimise performance, not only of yourself, but also of your team. Lacking these stress-moderation skills can lead not only to poor performance but, over time, all the negative effects of excess and chronic stress – compassion fatigue, lack of satisfaction from work, burnout, etc. – and that is just on the work front!
At WRaP EM, we think it is of utmost importance that these skills are taught and rehearsed just as carefully as we learn and practice how to insert a chest drain or intubate a patient or run a resus. It would be futile to how to perform these skills if you couldn’t control your shaking hands and slurring words in the heat of the moment.
We want to bring attention to these “non-technical” yet essential core skills during WW 2019 and encourage their development.
WRaP EM Wellness week content for 2019!
Transitioning from resident to registrar in the ED – 6 top tips – By Claire Mitchell
Wellness Week – Love is a battlefield – By Anna Ballantyne
Wellness week – Emergency Physician performance over a career span
Wellness week – The Perfect ED – A Nursing Perspective by Katie East, GCH
Wellness Week – Organisational Change in the Sunshine Coast Hospital and Health Service (SCHHS)
Wellness Week podcast 2 – Creating organisational change
Podcast – Wellness and performance – an introduction to the relationship
My “Perfect ED” – Making ED Great Again. by Melanie Rule
The best ED in the world: it depends on your point of view. Or does it?
A Recipe for the Perfect ED – by Simon Judkins
“The Best ED in the World” – Forgive Me -By Dan Pitt
Use these flyers to promote wellness week in your department!!
References:
- Tait D. Shanafelt, MD, and John H. Noseworthy, MD, CEO. Executive Leadership and Physician Well-being:Nine Organizational Strategies to Promote Engagement and Reduce Burnout. Mayo clinic Proceedings
- Michael J. Lauria, BA, NRP, FP-C*; Isabelle A. Gallo; Lt Col Stephen Rush, MD; Psychological Skills to Improve Emergency Care Providers’ Performance Under Stress. Annals of Emergency Medicine.
- https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2018/07/10/margaret-kay-physician-health-starts-with-us/
- Addreiansesns,J et al. Determinants and prevalence of Burnout in Emergency nurses: a systestamatic review of 25 years of research: International journal of nursing studies; 52 (2015) 649-661.
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