News

Healthcare professionals and wellbeing

This January marked the passing of two years since the Covid-19 virus reached the UK. Immense efforts have been made by the UK’s healthcare sector during the times that followed. New policies, behaviours and technological procedures were implemented in an effort to adapt to the delicate situation unfolding across the country. Furthermore, tremendous sacrifices were witnessed amongst all specialities within the healthcare workforce. As infection numbers rose rapidly, doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals began working tirelessly to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the population.

The dedication and commitment of the UK’s medical workforce has been outstanding during the pandemic. The intensity of their work increased, their working hours became longer just as the emotional pressure placed on them; yet they've been able to pull through and care for many of us in a time of great need. With the intensity of the pandemic slowly decreasing, a focus has been placed by multiple organisations on looking at the manner in which the hard-working conditions of the past two years have impacted the UK's medical workforce.

What is the current state of the medical workforce?

Many organisations have begun looking at the effects of the pandemic on the UK's medical workforce. During the past two years multiple surveys had been conducted by Royal College of Physicians ^{[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]} and the British Medical Association ^[1][2] exploring the current state of nurses, doctors and healthcare professionals in the UK. Similar results were discovered across most of the medical specialities. Respondents pointed out feelings of fatigue, exhaustion as well as rising stress levels.

With all of the previous mentioned factors having negative consequences on the wellbeing of the medical workforce, at Red Group, we've decided to put together a couple of informative articles, looking at the ways of handling stress efficiently alongside improving personal wellbeing.

What is wellbeing?

The term “wellbeing” has been described by the Surrey Heartlands CCG as “the achievement and maintenance of physical fitness and mental stability”. Working on improving personal wellbeing is a continuous task which requires dedication and commitment. Being healthier, feeling better, becoming more energized as well as improving overall morale are just some of the benefits of actively looking to improve personal wellbeing.

A proactive approach to personal wellbeing is particularly relevant presently. With challenging working conditions experienced for longer periods of time during the pandemic, fatigue and symptoms of exhaustion were to be expected amongst healthcare professionals. Awareness towards the emergence of these symptoms as well as active pursuit to remedy them provides a very important path towards improving wellbeing. 

The next chapter of this series explores the importance of self-awareness towards improving personal wellbeing, potential symptoms which signal exhaustion and fatigue, as well as the way how wellbeing could be improved on a daily basis.