The Emergency Department is a melting pot of humanity, a place that is open to all, 24 hours a day, every day of the year. It is constantly changing, as patients come and go and shifts of staff start and finish; passing on the baton, a never-ending thread of care.

 

This is our place, with all its beauty and despair, its comfort and excellence of care and healing. It is a place where those of us, privileged to work within its walls, have the opportunity to live a working life filled with meaning and purpose; the opportunity to thrive. Yet, so often this is not the case. The western world over, there are rising statistics of burnout within healthcare, particularly in emergency medicine, statistics that reflect suffering for staff, organisations, and patients.

 

Thriving, our positive wellbeing, is associated with benefits that impact almost every aspect of our lives. These benefits ripple out to others, including the care we give our patients.

 

Here at Waitematā, we continue to work hard at laying the foundations for all of our staff to thrive.  This is something that each of us have the capacity to influence.  This work is integrated through our leadership, teaching, equity focus and everyday work on the floor. 

 

This page will highlight some of our resources, initiatives, be a place to celebrate our successes and our humanity. 

In addition to the resources and initiatives in our own department, there are links here to our organisational wellbeing intranet page (there are two at the moment, the COVID-19 Wellbeing page is accessible offsite and updated regularly) for further resources. 

·      Wellbeing navigator tool

·      Links to virtual mindfulness sessions

·      Links to virtual wellbeing check-in sessions

·      Webinars and interviews

 

Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you would like to get more formally involved in this work or even have ideas you would like us to help with.  We always love hearing your stories too.

There are times when all of us struggle.  Please know in our department it is ok not to be ok.  We have support available to tap into through your mentors, leaders and my email below.  Our EAP is provided by Raise, with free and confidential support 0800 735 343. 

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Dr Jo Egan

ED SMO

Clinical Lead People and Culture