Strengthening global workforce well-being from Christchurch

With WFSA workforce wellbeing committee chair, Dr Susan Nicoll.

“You cannot have high-quality patient care if you don’t have functioning healthcare workers delivering it.” Says Christchurch anaesthetist and WFSA Workforce Well- being Committee Chair, Dr Susan Nicoll.

The WFSA Workforce Well-being Committee are leading the activities for the WFSA’s 2024 annual theme – Workforce Wellbeing. The Annual Theme intends to bring together the expertise of the WFSA’s committees to focus on a ‘vital aspect of anaesthesia which impacts our members, the well-being of their patients and national health systems.’ (WFSA website)

Susan describes well-being as the “mortar that holds the bricks of healthcare work together. Without it, we will crumble. Having workforce wellbeing as the annual theme allows us to offer individual anaesthetists and societies an idea of what to work on and provide those in decision-making roles guidance on what to do and what’s necessary.”

The Workforce Well-being Committee has delivered four webinars this year. “The aim of the webinars” Susan says, “has been to share the careful consideration workplace well-being requires, to establish connections, and grow awareness about others working in the area.”

“We tend to think of well-being as positive, feel-good activities but it’s more than that. It’s also about preparing the collegial space for any collegial distress that might come, the anticipatory skill set that lets you be good most of the time, and being strong enough to have ongoing conversations with leaders about what you need and the people you need around it to make a positive working environment.”

“All of the activities discussed in the webinars are activities you can do to support the well-being of yourself and others when adversity happens, when there’s uncertainty, or when they’re going through career transitions.”

The first three webinars focussed on how you can develop workplace well-being through simulation, coaching, mindfully paying attention to your decision-making, considering fatigue, or considering your retirement and what that looks like from an early stage in your career.

“The ageing anaesthetist webinar is one of the WFSA’s most watched and attended webinars. The WFSA Diversity and Inclusion Committee will be doing more in this space in the future.”

Then the fourth and final webinar focussed on mentorship. In this Dr Mary Nabukenya explicitly spoke about education, advocacy and collaboration in the programmes they’re running in Africa, how the WFSA fellowships work, and how they use simulation.

“The fourth webinar leads us into the next focus of work for the Workforce Well-being Committee” Susan shares, “looking at how we can build the mentorship programme. Helping to understand what skill sets and support are needed for effective mentorship and conversations.”

Mentorship is part of the preparation Susan described earlier. “It joins people together for the purpose of support and reflection.”

Susan’s initial interest in well-being grew from being mentored as a trainee and later becoming a mentor herself. As part of this, she attended a three-day course on being mentored and how to get the most out of the relationship. “People are interested in getting involved but need guidance on how to do it effectively. The WFSA already has 100 mentoring partnerships and now it’s about developing the how to.”

The committee will be codesigning mentorship resources with Dr Nabukenya and Dr Luiz Fernando dos Reis Falcão, WFSA’s head of memberships based in Brazil. “Together we will have a global perspective on developing these resources and putting psychological safety and support around them.”

“Resources are a big part of what the Committee are working on. Not everyone has access to the same resources we do through their Society or College. Our work is to understand what’s needed, source the information and share it. We’re not rewriting the book but finding what’s out there and developing it for the WFSA situation, to what people will find helpful.”

Susan joined the Workforce Well-being Committee after contributing a piece she wrote on gender equity in the Christchurch region to a wider piece the WFSA compiled on gender equity and inclusion. “I had just started a Diploma in Public Health, and this experience has allowed me to develop more of a global perspective. I have found this pathway through public health, in particular the research aspect of it, a good way to proceed with qualitative research and enquiry. I’m personally engaged in helping to put the science behind it.”

“I’ve had long-term involvement in well-being locally. Both in my department as the Well-being Lead and nationally on the Well-being SIG and Wellbeing Advocates Network for New Zealand. I’m now also enjoying looking at this through the WFSA who are making resolutions to the World Health Association and contributing to their work in this area.”