Wellbeing

Post by Rick Dasilva

 

“Well being”/”Wellness” gets thrown around without any true meaning. Our jobs have become more like tasks with door to doctor times, long hours, poor staffing, extensive documentation, lack of respect and/or having trouble with work/life balance. The wellness program often is more superficial as they give out plaques to order food, rather than assisting our wellness such as inspiring commitment to help tying into our daily goals. 

 

How Bad has Wellness gotten

• Our jobs have gotten harder
• Trouble with balancing work with life
• Trying not to bring work home
• Having patience with tough situations outside of work
• Additional stressors at work
  • Lack of staff
  • Work/life balance 
  • COVID affecting wellness
    • Burnout
    • Being the patient while being the provider
    • Fear/stress of family becoming ill to strain of relationships
    • Lack of PPE, testing to even proper equipment for treatment

 

Kelker H et al. Prospective Study of Emergency Medicine Provider Wellness Across Ten Academic and Community Hospitals During the Initial Surge of the COVID-19 Pandemic. BMC Emergency Medicine 2021

4 week survey of 200 frontline EM providers

• >75% stated they were resilient 
• Most reported experiencing stress, anxiety, and fear
• ≈50% experienced strain on their relationships with family and friends
• ≈50% experienced isolation
• Despite being a resilient group, the majority of frontline EM providers experienced stress, anxiety, fear, and concerns about personal safety putting many at risk for burnout

 

Moving Forward

• The most important step is being aware and realizing we are not invincible
• Recognizing emotional exhaustion, burnout, depersonalization and reduced accomplishments needing to be done
• Setting boundaries 
• Helping those to become vaccinated who are not
• “Ripple Effect” 
• Wellness checking each other like our families to colleagues.  
• Prioritizing Wellness/well being

• YELLOW: Goal is to move it to the right
• RED: Goal is to move it to the left
• This is a process I assess 1x/mo and takes time to get things in the right place.  This will also require each of us to learn to say NO at times.

 

Avoiding Previous Failures

• Focusing on the structure of our teams/colleagues as this would require administration involvement
• Advocating for resources 
• Getting involved with decision making and a reward system that shows the gratitude for the healthcare workers
• This would require a paradigm shift of more focus on personal wellness/Well being 
• Taking personal responsibility and personal wellness inventory 

 

Take Homes

Wellness/well being have become more important than ever given the pandemic and the hardships that have followed along. It is important to recognize when it is necessary to recognize and realize when it is important to step back and reflect on your own wellness. Although we try to avoid previous failures there will be situations where the failure is out of our hands. 

 

About our Guests:  

Salim Rezaie, MD

Greater San Antonio Emergency Physicians (GSEP); Director of Clinical Education

Associate Clinical Professor at University of the Incarnate Word school of Osteopathic Medicine

Editor in Chief of Emergency Physicians Monthly

Emergency Medicine/Internal Medicine

Creator/Founder of REBEL EM (www.rebelem.com)

Twitter: @srrezaie

 

Ademola Adewale, MD

Medical Director, Center for Medical Simulation and Education, AdventHealth Orlando Emergency Medicine 

Asst professor of Emergency Medicine, Florida State University College of Medicine

Twitter: @adewaleER

 

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