Self-care for Healthcare Workers
Reduce stress and sick leave with wellbeing programs customised for healthcare staff
Quality patient care, health and wellbeing relies on healthcare workers. This is especially so when their lives are at stake. And it makes working in health care a tough gig.
This means self-care for healthcare workers is very important. Not only is it important for healthcare workers, but it’s also important for your patients. After all, who’ll care for your patients if healthcare workers are all burnt out?
The feedback you provided in this section is incorporated below – under the heading “Isn’t preventing burnout about providing fruit bowls, yoga or walking groups?” It seemed to flow better that way (well, to me anyway!)
Burnout is everywhere
If the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that burnout is real. Burnout may not be a fancy medical term, but it’s as dangerous as disease and just as wide-spread.
It’s particularly real in the healthcare sector. And research from Edith Cowan University has given us some insights into this.
Your healthcare employees face stressful and traumatic situations. It comes part and parcel with their job. They’re probably awesome at providing your patients with the best possible care. But they often put their own self-care last.
It’s hard enough to attract competent staff at the best times. And it’s time consuming and costly as well. So, you need to ensure that you don’t lose your current staff to burnout. Or have them on extended workers compensation due to burnout and stress. That’s also costly.
This is why the mental health and wellbeing of your healthcare employees is paramount. And that’s where our wellbeing programs come in.
Try this compassion meditation
Isn’t preventing burnout about providing fruit bowls, yoga or walking groups? And maybe some massages?
No. Well, it used to be but the novelty of those wore off a long time ago. Now your people want something more substantial. And something more long-lasting.
They need something more. But how do you know what to include in your wellbeing activities? And we’re not suggesting giving them a survey to find out.
For health care workers, it boils down to three things. We know that health care workers:
Tend to be kind and compassionate to everyone except themselves. You place the health and wellbeing of your patients first and your own wellbeing last.
Are highly educated. Because of this, you want evidence-based interventions. And understandably so.
Are very busy. You don’t have time to sit around in a fancy office for half-a-day to attend a wellbeing program.
We don’t believe in doing surface-level stuff. Why? Because wellbeing programs need to address the cause of burnout.
This means providing effective wellbeing programs that:
Emphasise self-care and self-compassion. After all, health care workers can be their own harshest critics.
Are evidence-based. This is why we take the time needed to put our signature programs together. They’re heavily researched and backed by evidence.
Are interesting and engaging. After all, you don’t want your people turning up to hear the same old thing.
Include activities that are accessible to all staff.
Includes follow-up by our facilitators. This gives room for improvements to stick
The advantage? Increasing your employee’s wellbeing, minimising burnout and reducing employee turnover.
We believe that self-care and wellbeing should be as pie, or as easy as eating pie! Improving lifestyle choices of employees shouldn’t be hard work. But it can help prevent chronic illness and stress.
Our process
Our signature program is organisation-wide. It provides each and every one of your people the opportunity to develop their own wellbeing plan for the next one to three months.
We’ve broken our process down into three different sessions. This helps your employees to develop healthy long-lasting habits.
Session 1
Session 2
Session 3
Right from the outset, we start tiny. Yes, we said tiny.
This session is all about creating tiny habits. Tiny habits that support what wellbeing means to every single employee.
And while they might be tiny habits, they’re also sustainable, healthy ones. Every single employee that attends will learn how to establish:
- three sustainable tiny habits for the first week
- a further three tiny habits for the following week
Do I hear you asking ‘why baby steps?’ Here’s why:
- Because we’ve all seen big bang commitments that fail (remember last New Years’ Eve?)
- Because we know that small incremental changes are more likely to succeed than attempting big shifts
- Because we want to give your people the taste of success
- Because this helps everyone create and develop wellness habits that will last a lifetime.
Tiny steps are more likely to stick long-term than trying to take a huge leap. Just ask our previous participants.
Our second session starts seven to 10 days after the tiny habits session. Why? Because it lets your employees get into the habit of creating healthy habits.
And now it’s time for your employees to zoom out and look at the broader picture. During this, we’ll explore the following issues:
- What does wellbeing mean for you? What about happiness? There’s no wrong answer here. It’s different for everyone
- What does the science have to say?
- What is PERMAH? And who the heck cares? Hint: this is all about positive psychology
- What about financial security? Does wellbeing cost a lot?
We all wear many different hats in our life. Father, mother, daughter, sibling, boss, colleague. And the list goes on. But it’s still possible to build balanced wellbeing while wearing so many hats. And this session teaches you and your employees how.
About one month after session 2, we’ll catch up for session 3. This is all about follow-up and allows us to see how your employees are fairing with their wellbeing.
We all get off track and lose our initial enthusiasm.
The purpose of this session is to help embed the program into your employee’s everyday life. It helps them refresh and revitalise their personal wellbeing goals. And it ensures that each individual has an actionable plan that they can actually use.
After all, we don’t want to pop into your lives with our wellbeing programs without them having a long-lasting effect. Sustainable healthy habits without heaps of effort. That’s what we all want.
Our programs can form the backbone of a broader wellbeing plan in your organisation. And that’s what we’d like to see: your employees setting up wellbeing for life.
Our programs differ from our competitors.
Here’s how:
- Every employee receives an actional plan they can easily put into action. This isn’t about your people taking some notes, then hiding them at the bottom of a drawer. Or forgetting about them as soon as they return to their desks
- The habits we help your employees create are sustainable and long-lasting
- We understand that not one size fits all. That’s why we customise our programs to your organisation (and to each of your people)
- Our programs include follow-ups to help keep people on track. This helps employees embed the program into their daily routine
- Our facilitators are available for one-on-one consults. This helps iron out any questions you or your employees may have. And it ensures your employees feel empowered and heard
- We answer every email ourselves, right here in Australia. None of our responses are automated or outsourced. We do this as we believe in the quality of our programs
Employees find our programs engaging. Here’s why:
- Having access to our facilitators, one-on-one, ensures employees receive the greatest benefit
- Having access to our facilitators, one-on-one, ensures employees receive the greatest benefit
- Our approach is pragmatic and empowers employees to confidently take tiny steps
- We create practices that are easily embedded into your employee’s workplace and their daily routines
- There’s heaps of follow-up and support before, during and after the program