Building workforce well‐being capability: The findings of a wellness self‐care programme

Abstract

Aim To implement and evaluate a co‐designed staff well‐being programme. Background Working in health care can be physically and psychologically demanding. The job demands–resources model indicates job resources moderate the impact of job demands on staff well‐being. Well‐being initiatives introduced by organisations improve staff commitment, and reduce absences and incidents. Methods A qualitative descriptive design was applied. In 2019, within an Australian local health district, 232 health care professionals across eight hospitals and two community settings attended a six‐week well‐being programme, which included a variety of self‐care strategies, for example mindfulness. Nine 1‐hr focus groups were completed 2–4 weeks post‐programme. Data were analysed using thematic analysis to explore participants’ thoughts and experiences. Results Participants experienced joy from workshops and guilt for leaving peers with their workload. Participants developed strong interpersonal relationships with workshop attendees within a ‘safe well‐being space’. Broader impacts expressed by participants were; learnt coping mechanisms and proactive self‐care practices and can be easily embedded into daily routines. Participants shared their ‘toolkit’ with colleagues, family and friends, positively impacting the well‐being of people around them. Conclusion Participants encouraged by their new well‐being ‘toolkit’ engaged with colleagues, better managed stressors and shared learnings. Implications for Nursing Management Building well‐being capability within a health organisation requires nursing management to make staff well‐being a strategic priority, use a co‐design approach and embed coping mechanisms at the grassroots levels.

Career optimism and job‐related well‐being of Australian nurses during COVID‐19: A cross‐sectional study

“…• Mindfulness and well-being programs have been evidenced to enable participants to better manage stress (Mackay et al, 2021;Wilson et al, 2021). As our study highlights, such programs are particularly important for female nurses.…”

“…Our findings also showed that having the freedom to make and execute decisions in stressful circumstances is key to achieving higher job‐related well‐being among nurses. Therefore, we recommend that in environments where healthcare workers have high physical and emotional demands Wilson et al (2021), providing supervisor support and some independence to make job‐related decisions can help mitigate dissatisfaction with their jobs (Labrague & De los Santos, 2020; Modaresnezhad et al, 2020).…”

“…Wilson et al (2021), providing supervisor support and some independence to make job-related decisions can help mitigate dissatisfaction with their jobs(Labrague & De los Santos, 2020;Modaresnezhad et al, 2020).TA B L E 4 Predictors of job-related well-being.…”

The grit of mental health professionals: Initial conceptualization and measurement.

“…Professional grit offers a unique approach to understand the underlying mechanisms that influence mental health responders' professional well-being in a protracted crisis such as COVID-19. While factors such as adaptive coping and self-care have always been recognized as foundational for mental health professionals (Wilson et al, 2021), within the notion of professional grit these concepts take on new meaning. In our preliminary data, coping skills were reported as the predominant theme and demonstrated the importance not only with compassion resilience.…”

Relationship between psychological ownership of the nursing profession and turnover intention: A correlational survey among Taiwanese nurses

“…Past studies have identified factors that result in nurses' intention to leave, such as policy restriction, poor relationships with administrators (Schirle et al, 2020), job dissatisfaction (Halcomb et al, 2021; Schirle et al, 2020, 2021), anxiety (Modaresnezhad et al, 2021), lack of autonomy (Austin et al, 2020), lack of organisational support (Sharif et al, 2021), unused strengths (Chu et al, 2021), work–family conflict, inadequate salary level (Cao et al, 2021) and inadequate staffing level (Burmeister et al, 2019). As informed by the causal model of turnover, a negative organisational climate also predicts turnover (Evans, 2017), while the job‐demand resource model shows that a lack of workplace joy or satisfaction may also be related to turnover (Lavoie‐Tremblay et al, 2022; Wilson et al, 2021). These findings focus on clarifying how organisational factors trigger nurses' turnover.…”