Individual Wellbeing

A physician’s ability to pursue a sustainable work life is in part shaped by their ability to achieve a sense of wellbeing.

Broadly, wellbeing is thought to encompass physical, mental, emotional and cultural health. A charter for doctors describes it as including ‘the cultivation of healthy relationships at personal and professional levels based on appreciation, kindness, gratitude and compassion’ and as being ‘at the heart of competencies required for good medical practice’.

So how can you enhance your own wellbeing at and away from work? Created by ACEP, the Emergency Medicine Wellness Wheel™ reminds emergency physicians to take time to self-renew and allows us to see how these ‘spokes’ are interconnected and contribute to our quality of life we live.  The external resources below provide some informative and practical tools to enhance your seven spokes of wellness: occupational, emotional, physical, financial, spiritual, social and intellectual.

ACEM understands the importance of workplace and workforce policies, systems and structures that acknowledge, support and enable individuals to achieve wellbeing; and that establishing psychologically safe working environments that facilitate and support staff wellness in the face of regular adversity is paramount if optimal working environments are to be realised.

What is the College Doing?

We are working with members and trainees to highlight the importance of wellbeing through initiatives such as:

• The Quality Standards and Resource Toolkit now acknowledges the importance of workforce wellbeing in the ability to provide care
• Each year, ACEM hosts ACEM Wellness Week, led by the College for the first time in 2021
• the ACEM Wellbeing Award
• the 2021 establishment of Regional Wellbeing Champions, who will enhance the interface of wellbeing activity between the College and members/trainees
• Mentor Connect, a mentoring program that gives members and trainees the opportunity to establish mentoring connections outside their workplace
• a joint call-to-action with our peers across the globe to raise awareness of burnout syndrome in the emergency medicine workforce
• Wellbeing Charter for Doctors, a collaborative effort by ACEM, the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists and The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. 

These initiatives are designed to support ACEM’s ongoing advocacy to alleviate stressors within the systems and structures our members and trainees work within, including on access block, rural health and workforce , COVID-19, discrimination, and bullying and harassment; and in addition to a range of policies and position statements developed by the College in support of better work conditions for emergency physicians.

Resources

Who can you contact at ACEM for support?