"A Healthy Outside Starts from the Inside."

As Singapore enters endemic Covid-19 new normal, the workload of healthcare professionals has almost gone back to pre-covid levels. As such, it is imperative to recognise the importance of providing a conducive and safe work environment for our Residents. 

Prof Lim Swee Han, ADIO, SGH of SingHealth Residency takes this chance to elaborate on wellness awareness and share a few tips on improving mental well-being in the workplace.

1. What is Wellness in Healthcare?

Wellness in healthcare is when healthcare professionals take conscious steps to take good care of their own health and mental well-being. When we get overwhelmed with our work, it is easy to ignore our own needs; such as eating, going to toilet, and sleeping. However, we have to acknowledge that emotionally intense moments are more common than we think. Understanding what we are feeling, how we are reacting to those feelings, and how that is affecting our performance is the first step to managing them. As frontline workers, it is important for our Residents to develop wellness awareness, so that they will pay attention to their mental wellness before they reach the stage of emotional burnout due to long periods of fatigue.

2. What are the Consequences if the Mental Wellness of Healthcare Professionals is Being Overlooked?

When healthcare professionals are overly stressed, it may lead to consequences such as experiencing burnout, being in a low and depressing mood, constantly worrying and having heightened feelings of anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and insomnia. As such, it may affect their interactions with family members, colleagues and — in worst case scenarios — even patients.

3. What Are Some Tips to Improve the Well-being of Healthcare Professionals?

• Build awareness: While practising hand hygiene which is a common activity among all healthcare professionals, take this time to reflect: "Am I hungry, thirsty or exhausted? Am I aware of my emotions? Am I aware of how I am expressing them? Is my personal anxiety, fear or stress being transmitted to others beyond my control?"
  
  
• Foster peer support: Between colleagues, support one another by practising active listening when they share their troubles. Show care and empathy by checking on them if you notice a difference in their moods.
  
  
• Turn to your personal support system: Spend some quality time with your loved ones and family, or people you can turn to for emotional and practical support.
  
  
• Catch up on sleep whenever possible: Try to get as much quality sleep as possible, as it reduces irritability and fatigue as well as increases your ability to focus better.
  
  
• Access easily available support resources: Speak to someone if you need, by accessing the One Stop Wellness Resource Page launched by CRAFD in August 2022: http://infopedia/SingHealth/Departments/Residency/Pages/Wellness.aspx.
  
  
• Approach your Faculty: If you are feeling troubled, reach out to someone. Asking for help is never a sign of weakness. Approach your programme executive, faculty, supervisors, HOD, ADIO, or DIO, who are resourceful and are very experienced to help you to cope with workplace stress.
  
  
• Reach out to Staff Support: Contact SingHealth Staff Care Centre/SingHealth Staff Counselling at the hotline 97203360 or email to staffcare@singhealth.com.sg. Each hospital will have their own Staff Support hotline. For e.g. in SGH, there is SAFE (Support Action for Employee). You can call them at 88793742 from 9am to 5pm daily. If you have inhibitions about sharing your woes through calling, you can also email to sghpeers@sgh.com.sg.
  
  
• For PGY1s, we have a PGY1 BLUES (Bolstering, Listening, Understanding & Emotional Support) Programme dedicated exclusively to them. A PGY1 in need of peer support can contact PGY1 BLUES via this email: pgy1blues@singhealth.com.sg or by informing a PGY1 programme executive. PGY1 BLUES will assign a Peer Supporter and/or arrange for the PGY1 to meet up with a staff counsellor. HODs and PDs may also refer a PGY1 to the BLUES programme, with the PGY1's consent.
  

Assigned peer supporters are graduated PGY1s who have turned PGY2 (MOs or R1 Residents). They are trained by the SingHealth Staff Counselling (SSC) Team with a face-to-face training session. The session is not meant for Peer Supporters to diagnose their fellow colleagues or prescribe medications to them, but to support their peers if they are in distress. Through this training, Peer Supporters would understand:

• their role (what they do/what they do not do)
• the R-A-R model (Recognise-Act-Refer) that SingHealth is adopting for Peer Support-related initiatives
• the importance of self-care
• the common challenges that PGY1s are facing

Peer Supporters from the BLUES Programme and the PGY1 team place a very high priority on confidentiality, discretion and privacy. The PGY1 BLUES Programme has received positive feedback from many PGY1s since its inception, so do not be afraid to reach out.

Overall, I hope that the wellness tips that I have shared will be useful and applicable to our Residents' lives. As Robert Urich, American actor and producer, once said, "A healthy outside starts from the inside", let us take good care of ourselves so we can better take care of our loved ones and our patients.