Leading wellness in healthcare:A qualitative study of leadership practices for wellness in hospital settings

Ways of dealing with workplace stress and enhancing healthcare workers wellness are sought globally. The aim of this study was to explore healthcare leaders\u27 practice in relation to the implementation of a workplace wellness program called SEED in the context of multiple crises (bushfires and COVID-19) affecting a local health district in New South Wales, Australia. Practice theory informed interviews (n = 23), focus groups (n = 2) and co-analysis reflexive discussions (n = 2) that were conducted with thirteen leaders and twenty healthcare workers. A pragmatic approach to program implementation for healthcare workers\u27 wellness explored the process and actions that resulted from leadership practice in an inductive thematic analysis. Preliminary themes were presented in the co-analysis sessions to ensure the lived experiences of the SEED program were reflected and co-interpretation of the data was included in the analysis. Three key themes were identified. 1) Leading change-implementing a wellness program required leaders to try something new and be determined to make change happen. 2) Permission for wellness-implicit and explicit permission from leaders to engage in wellness activities during worktime was required. 3) Role-modelling wellness-leaders viewed SEED as a way to demonstrate leadership in supporting and caring for healthcare workers. SEED provided a platform for leaders who participated to demonstrate their leadership practices in supporting wellness activities. Leadership practices are critical to the implementation of healthcare wellness programs. The implementation of SEED at a time of unprecedented crisis gave leaders and healthcare workers opportunities to experience something new including leadership that was courageous, responsive and authentic. The study highlighted the need for workplace wellness programs to intentionally include leaders rather than only expect them to implement them. The practices documented in this study provide guidance to others developing, implementing and researching workplace wellness programs

The SEED Wellness Model: A Workplace Approach to Address Wellbeing Needs of Healthcare Staff During Crisis and Beyond

Workplace wellness has gained new meaning and significance in the healthcare workforce in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Healthcare workers across the world have carried the burden of responding to the public health crisis by having to work under new pressures and constantly changing environments, take on additional shifts, risk their own health and lives, and cope with the ongoing psychological and emotional strain. The purpose of this paper is to articulate a workplace wellness model applied across hospitals in the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District, a regional area in New South Wales, Australia. The description of the development, components, and lessons learned from the SEED Wellness Model illustrates one possible solution about how to provide better care for the staff thus not only preventing staff burnout and turnover, but also creating lasting organizational benefits. The detailed model description can assist in developing a larger and more rigorous evidence-base to improve staff wellness in healthcare settings, both within Australia and internationally

Five insights from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019 provides a rules-based synthesis of the available evidence on levels and trends in health outcomes, a diverse set of risk factors, and health system responses. GBD 2019 covered 204 countries and territories, as well as first administrative level disaggregations for 22 countries, from 1990 to 2019. Because GBD is highly standardised and comprehensive, spanning both fatal and non-fatal outcomes, and uses a mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive list of hierarchical disease and injury causes, the study provides a powerful basis for detailed and broad insights on global health trends and emerging challenges. GBD 2019 incorporates data from 281 586 sources and provides more than 3.5 billion estimates of health outcome and health system measures of interest for global, national, and subnational policy dialogue. All GBD estimates are publicly available and adhere to the Guidelines on Accurate and Transparent Health Estimate Reporting. From this vast amount of information, five key insights that are important for health, social, and economic development strategies have been distilled. These insights are subject to the many limitations outlined in each of the component GBD capstone papers.Peer reviewe

International Field Placements- which model will fit me, my team and my students?

International field placements have become increasingly popular, in line with globalisation (Panos, 2005), and global interdependance (Pettys et al., 2005). Key areas of learning for social work students undertaking an international field placement include international comparison (Healy, 2008), cross-cultural skills and anti-colonialist practice (Gray, 2005), and the development of cultural sensitivity and ethnorelativism (Engstrom and Jones, 2007)

Compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma in everyday hospital social work: A personal narrative of practitioner-researcher identity transition

2019 by the author. The story of my evolution as a practice-based collaborative researcher is a story that comes full circle. Through exploring my own experiences of compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma as a hospital-based social worker, I am able to investigate the phenomenon across the profession and provide a critique of the needs of practitioners working in the complex environment of hospitals and health care. Parallel to this is an investigation into the need for practice research in this complex environment and in the profession overall as seen through the lens of a collaborative research partnership with social work hospital colleagues that transformed my approach to research. I have drawn on personal narrative, autoethnography and reflexive processing to investigate my own impact on and from this research. I conclude with an understanding of the power of storytelling in participatory action research and in the potential in collaborative research methodologies for authentic reciprocity and relationship to traverse the practice-research divide

Using film in social work education: a medium for critical analysis

Whilst developing an undergraduate social work subject this year in group work practice I started to reflect on the number of films I had seen over the years where support groups or group process had been depicted as a component of the protagonist\u27s life journey. Modern films such as Ruben Guthrie (2015) and Thankyou for Sharing (2012) came to mind, along with the classic One Flew Over the Cuckoo\u27s Nest (1975). As I started to think about this the list grew and I realised that social work students already had a wealth of representations to draw on when beginning to engage with group work practice. From there I became interested in the use of film as a medium for critical analysis and the development of practice skills more broadly in social work education, both with specific intervention methods and in the development of social work professional identity and socialisation to the profession

The international field placement: a reconciliation of identity

The international field placement is a site of both identity confusion and identity development for the social work student. Aiming to develop their professional identity they are faced with a challenge: the presence of two dominant identities, the tourist identity and the student identity. Whilst the embodiment of the tourist identity has often facilitated the student¿s motivation to undertake the placement experience, the student identity is what both university staff and agency field educators perceive as integral to student engagement in this remote educational setting. Social work educators perceive this identity challenge as an impediment to learning. In contrast, students report feeling that their tourist traits strengthened their personal and professional capacity, natural curiosity and ability to engage with the local community. By analysing the roles of university staff as liaison support, and field educators as agency supervisors, it is possible to explore a teaching and learning relationship that is student-centred, grounded in the immersive international experience. Through privileging the student¿s voice social work educators involved with organising, supporting and supervising international field placements are able to understand the placement as a continuum of learning. On this continuum identity reconciliation is viewed as a crucial element in the development of a professional identity

Student isolation: the experience of distance on an international field placement

In an era of global awareness of the impact of social, political and environmental impact, the international field placement has become a feature of many social work programmes throughout Australia. A theoretical framework of international social work principles allows for a guiding platform for teaching and learning; however, the experience of the social work student is often one of cultural isolation and emotional vulnerabilities. Whilst cross-cultural learning is a core practice goal of the placement, the ability to engage with this learning is affected by the impact of distance on the student. In turn, the university responsibility for the student is heightened by the distance involved, creating an increased sense of risk for both the student and the social work educator. This article draws on a mixed-methods study, with data sourced from both questionnaires and in-depth interviews with university field education staff, former social work students, and field educators. Five lenses of distance are explored in the aim of increasing understanding of the student experience: geographical distance, cultural distance, emotional distance, pedagogical distance and technological distance. In doing so, the social work educators\u27 ability to monitor and support remote students is enhanced, and the capacity for the student to engage in a positive teaching and learning environment is increased

International field placements: The models Australian social work programmes are currently using

IInternational field placements have become increasingly common in Australian social work programmes. This article looks at the models of organising international placements, in sending or receiving social work students. Four such models are identified: informal linkages for individual students, linkages between Australian social work programmes, formalised university to university agreements and formalised university to agency agreements. Although there appears to be a preference for formalised ongoing relationships between institutions in different countries, drawing on all four models as appropriate and feasible will enable everyone involved in international placements to achieve the most positive practice possible