Imagining a better future: the outcomes of the Wellness Wednesday self-care program for healthcare staff

There is recognition that working in the aged care setting can be physically and psychologically demanding, stressful and can lead to staff burnout. These types of demands can result in reduced job satisfaction, disengaged staff and can be detrimental to care delivery. In order to address these issues in a 52 bed sub - acute geriatric hospital within Australia, a self-care program was initiated to support staff wellbeing. The staff (nursing, allied health, managers, security staff) themselves were engaged in co-designing the self-care program alongside the project team. The Wellness Wednesday program runs for 45-60mins every Wednesday for eight weeks and includes a variety of self-care strategies e.g. yoga, reflexology, mindfulness and gratitude. There is wide recognition that strategies such as mindfulness can enable healthcare staff to work with compassion in stressful and demanding work environments, improving listening to others, being more present, less judgmental and more considerate of others perspectives. All staff within the hospital were invited to participate in the eight sessions. Each eight week program caters for 10-12 multidisciplinary team members. Throughout the study participants were supported to 'IMAGINE' how the care environment could be enhanced to support the well-being of all staff, suggestions for improvement were captured and submitted to the Imagine committee for consideration. In addition staff were encouraged to use the techniques they were learning with their colleagues and where appropriate with patients (e.g. providing simple hand massage). In this presentation we will share the results of this mixed-methods intervention study including what worked well, how the strategies impacted on improved participant well-being and promoting a healthy workplace culture. Highlighting improvements in staff engagement, job satisfaction, workplace wellbeing and reduced intention to leave. We will also offer insights into how you could use the Imagini