Since June 2017, the Department of Medical Education’s Employee Wellness Subcommittee has been meeting on a semi-monthly basis to design a multi-method Wellness Needs Assessment for employees from across the department.
At the Medical Education Departmental Meeting in December, the chair of the Subcommittee, Anu Anandaraja, MD, and committee members Deidra McKoy, and Beverly Forsyth, MD presented the work of the subcommittee to the wider Med Ed Community, including the strategy and components of the Wellness Needs Assessment. The assessment was launched during the Departmental Meeting with a series of Poll Everywhere questions, which gave all attendees the opportunity to comment on challenges to employee wellness and suggest interventions that could support well-being in the workplace.
The next step of the needs assessment was an anonymous online survey launched on December 7, 2017 which provided employees from across the department the chance to weigh-in on their experience of stress and burnout, and to voice their opinions on the measures needed to improve well-being.
The first department-wide wellness interventions were also announced which included:
- Monthly Community Wellness Lunches for all employees of the department.
- Scheduled visits from the CHI Cart to each team within the department
Over the winter of 2017-2018, the Employee Wellness Subcommittee will introduce a new series of needs assessment exercises designed to reach all employees, to implement further wellness interventions, guided by employee suggestions, which will debut spring 2018!