‘Let’s simplify the way we approach staff wellbeing’

With the closure of so many NHS Staff Wellbeing Hubs by 2024, the message felt clear: staff wellbeing is only a priority during a crisis, like the Covid pandemic. I have been a wellbeing champion for over three years now, and one thing I've learnt is that my dedicated, caring and often burnt-out colleagues are still managing crises every day, either at a systemic or a personal level, dealing with vulnerable, deprived, and marginalised service users. I've made it my personal goal to offer team wellbeing sessions every week, and even though attendance fluctuates, my colleagues report that they value the space to reflect and connect. 

I still remember my hesitation when I ran the first session for my team. The week before I had attended a Trust Wellbeing seminar, but I only vaguely remembered what they taught us. It was something about the 'stress curve', and their recommendation was to ask the team where they were on it – but it quickly became very complicated. To begin with, I only had three attendees during my first session, and from what I could tell, they were managing their stress well since they found the time to attend. I decided to abandon the 'stress curve' and I did a mindfulness exercise – my tried and tested strategy when I feel nervous. I had no idea whether people enjoyed it or not. I didn't dare ask, because I was terrified of their feedback. 

At the second session, I came prepared with a longer mindfulness practice because I convinced myself that was what wellbeing was all about. But this time some attendees refused to meditate because they said it made them feel more anxious. I froze and panicked, thinking I had nothing to offer besides mindfulness. What was I going to do? 

To my relief, one of my colleagues sighed and said that she'd had a very busy week, but she was grateful for the support she'd received from others. Then another colleague shared how stressful their week had been but were looking forward to the weekend. At that moment, I could feel my body coming out of panic mode. People were bonding, people were laughing. They thanked me for the space I created for them to be able to do that. What a relief! 

Making space

I noticed an interesting trend; we would start the wellbeing session with very few people saying much, but as time passed, more people would gradually join in. There was no pressure to participate, if somebody did not want to share how their week had been, they could just say "I pass". To my surprise, some people really enjoyed mindfulness, so I made space for that too; others wanted to light the mood with a well-timed joke, and I made space for them.  

I started to worry that my wellbeing sessions had become too unstructured and too flexible that I had no idea what I was doing each week, which increased my anxiety. I am glad that my supervisor supported me in just sitting with that anxiety and letting people direct the sessions and bring whatever it was relevant for them at that moment. My sessions have always been and always will be voluntary to attend, so giving everyone the autonomy and choice to attend or not and bring whatever they felt was relevant, really improved overall attendance. I noticed that the people who initially declined to make time for the sessions, started to join in. I really wondered whether it was peer pressure or something else, but it really didn't matter, people were joining in, and they reported that they enjoyed it. 

This is how our wellbeing sessions took a life of their own. It was what we did as a team. Every Friday at 2:30 pm, we all gathered in the middle of the room to meditate, laugh, tell stories, reflect on our week, support, encourage and congratulate each other. Now I can proudly say I have a format that we created together. We start with a 5-minute mindfulness exercise (for those who can tolerate it), then go around the room and ask everyone to reflect on how their week has been. The more we got to know each other, the longer the sessions lasted. 

That's when I noticed that the sessions started to grow in popularity, with more and more people joining each week. Honouring my promise of flexibility, I initially offered the sessions both virtually and in person, but fewer and fewer people joined online, so the sessions became exclusively face-to- face. It appeared that we all valued the time and space to connect with each other, which, not surprisingly, was extremely important for our wellbeing. 

The value of connection at work 

If we learnt something valuable during the pandemic, it was that being disconnected and isolated is damaging to our health. While we adjusted to working from home and some people really enjoyed it, more and more colleagues started to adopt a flexible working pattern. Research has shown that connecting with our colleagues on a personal level at work increases productivity, resilience, fosters greater learning and knowledge sharing, and improves retention and engagement. While we care about productivity, healthcare is fundamentally different from most corporate cultures, because the quality of care we provide is more important than the number of patients we see per week. To deliver the quality of care that our service users deserve, we need to look after our own wellbeing. Healthcare workers are at risk of developing compassion fatigue, but feeling connected to colleagues at work could act as a buffer to stress and burn-out. 

It was interesting to see how everyone used the space to share positive and challenging moments from the week and have their colleagues validate their experiences. During the wellbeing sessions, we didn't seek solutions or groundbreaking psychological insight, just a safe space for people to share and be listened to. Although mindfulness continues to be requested as one of the core wellbeing exercises, colleagues report that simply having the space to share and connect is more valuable than anything else. 

A call for action 

I understand that we want to use evidence-based wellbeing tools, but I believe that sometimes we overcomplicate the way we approach staff wellbeing because we stick to tried and tested prescriptive methods, to soothe our own anxiety of needing to be in control during the sessions. If we instead stop and listen to what people need, we might realise that as being wellbeing champions, we don't have to provide all the answers, we can simply let attendees use the most powerful wellbeing tool we have: genuine human connection. We can and should leave space for a light-hearted chit-chat and a laugh. 

The NHS has one of the most diverse workforces I have ever known, and having a space to celebrate and appreciate our differences will unite us against the systemic challenges we face every day. In the workplace we often dampen down our autonomy to submit to the workplace values and culture, but I believe that at least we can afford people the flexibility to choose how to look after their own wellbeing. That's what my sessions are all about! Just bring whatever makes you happy – it might make other people happy too.