Let's Start a Conversation
It’s a tale of 2 countries and many medical educators who, by complete chance, launched their websites within 24 hours of each other in 2018. They had one common goal in mind – ‘Let’s start a conversation’.
A conversation about what we do, who we are, what helps us find meaning in our work, what pulls us down and what lifts us up.
It’s a conversation about how we, as hospital staff, are more similar than we are different – despite the 16,000 km that separate us and our hospitals.
It’s the story of how Twitter via @TessaRDavis linked our two sites together with this blog post https://dontforgetthebubbles.com/two-new-wellness-resources/.
My side of the story began 18 months ago. I started making connections and building relationships between Emergency Departments (ED) in South East Queensland, Australia. These connections culminated in the formation of WRaP EM – a group of ordinary but like-minded Emergency Physicians and Medical Educators with a passion for physician wellness. Over the following year and many hours of hard work later, we launched our website WRaP EM.
In the weeks after the launch of WRaP EM, a new connection formed – one between WRaP EM and YouGotThis. Another connection between like-minded and passionate hospital staff and educators trying to make a difference in their workplaces in the interest of staff wellbeing, albeit this time on opposite sides of the world.
What was it about February 2018, that meant we both released websites at the same time in the sphere of Hospital Staff Wellbeing?
Perhaps it’s that whether you are in Brisbane or Bristol, we now as a group, have had enough of the focus being placed on time-based targets rather than physicians’ health; perhaps we both now see that the evidence indicates healthier doctors means healthier patients, perhaps we both want to see more support provided to those who are involved in medical errors; perhaps it’s that now we are ready to start a global conversation that transcends where you live, what your role is in health care or who you are.
A conversation that could start with a question like ‘How are you?’, ‘Are you okay’ or simply ‘I’ve been there too”.
Dr Una Harrington is an Emergency Physician working at the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital Emergency Department in Brisbane. She is the Lead and Co-Founder of WRaP EM
