Staff Wellbeing Resources

For the healthcare professional, clinical resilience is about reconnecting with those stirrings which first motivated us to spend a career in the service of others. It is about recovering and maintaining the joy of practice. Being a resilient practitioner is essential for our personal wellbeing and also for the safety of our patients, who depend on our ability to optimise our physical and cognitive performance.

Burnout happens when we take on too much, when we think we can do the impossible, at the cost of our wellbeing, our health and even our quality of life. Although the term is often casually tossed about, burnout is no joke – it can impact every area of your life and leave you depleted in every way. After two years of the pandemic and lockdowns, working from home, homeschooling, widespread stress and being on our computers and devices 24/7 and constantly available, the danger of burnout for so many of us is all too real. It can happen to anyone. Using humour, straightforward language and her signature illustrations, Bev clearly explains what burnout is, who is at risk, how to recognise the danger signs and, finally, how to step back from the brink, providing insight and techniques to ease burnout and stop yourself going up in smoke.

Our resilience, or capacity to bounce back and even thrive in pressured times, is critical in workplaces today.

The first complete guide to burnout, based on groundbreaking new research. It shows how you can tell whether you really have burnout, and helps you shape a strategy for recovery that will work for you.

This timely aid, filled with 'down to earth' advice, provides invaluable guidance on avoiding burnout and on how to combat it should it occur. The book offers innovative ways to change working practices, shares advice on building protective mechanisms into daily working life and explores the diverse array of career options that are available to doctors.

Most people think we have to make a binary choice between being a good human being and being a tough, effective leader. Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter show in this powerful, practical book, you must always balance caring for your people with leadership wisdom and effectiveness. The authors find that when leaders bring the right balance of compassion and wisdom to the job, they foster much higher levels of employee engagement, performance, loyalty, and well-being in their people.

How do we reconcile our need to express our emotions with our desire to protect others? Far too often we find ourselves trapped in this dilemma of expression versus repression. We fear that by expressing our true feelings, we will hurt and alienate those close to us. But by repressing our emotions--even in the benevolent guise of "self-control"--we only risk hurting ourselves. Osho, one of the most provocative and inspiring spiritual teachers of our time, provides here a practical and comprehensive approach to dealing with this conflict effectively. Incorporating new, never-before-published material, Emotional Wellness leads us to understand the roots of our emotions, to react to situations in a way that can teach us more about ourselves and others, and to respond to life's inevitable ups and downs with far greater confidence and equilibrium.

The second edition of this well-received text advocates for a transformational change in the way doctors protect their mental health, look out for their colleagues, co-create a kinder, more humane work culture and lead health system reform. Offering practical strategies and real solutions, based both on medical literature and the wisdom of experienced doctors, the new edition reimagines health care, where every doctor is encouraged and supported to: prioritise psychological wellbeing and physical protection promote healthy workplace cultures, fairness and safety build strong relationships by sharing challenges save lives through medical co-leadership rediscover the joy in medicine Brimming with poignant and hopeful stories and quotes from a diverse array of doctors from many different specialities and at all career stages, the book is a celebration of the growing global interconnectedness and the changing face of the medical profession.

How to Promote Wellbeing is a timely resource designed to help all healthcare practitioners promote and protect their own and their patients' wellbeing and mental health. Focusing on practical strategies and guidance, this much-needed book explores approaches for reducing burnout, managing stress, coping with pressure in healthcare settings, recognising signs of impaired decision-making, and much more. Written specifically for busy healthcare practitioners, the book offers focused and succinct chapters on topics ranging from behaviours to improve resilience and mindfulness, to approaches for maintaining work-life balance when confronted with excessive workloads and organisational pressures. Throughout the text, evidence-based tools and techniques are provided to improve the practitioner's health and facilitate the delivery of high-quality care.
Donated by UNSW Sydney and the South Western Sydney Clinical School.

Key Features: * Comprehensive and universal resource * Enables JMOs to understand and deal with the day-to-day working of hospitals and associated systems * Considers the practicalities of these new environments, including shift work and industrial, employment and financial aspects * Focuses on streamlining necessary yet onerous administrative tasks, aiding their smooth and systematic completion * Liberates the time and energy required to become true and effective doctors in training.
Donation from UNSW Sydney and the South Western Sydney Clinical School.

Based on the popular BBC programme and podcast, Just One Thing, this book brings to life Dr Mosley's mission to find things you can introduce into your daily routine which will have a big impact on your mental and physical health. Did you know that eating chocolate can help your heart, that singing can give you a natural 'high' and that having more house plants can improve your mood and boost your productivity? Dr Mosley explains how, and presents many more surprisingly simple and scientifically proven facts to benefit your health. He's talked to experts and road-tested all his tips to help you find that one small thing that could make a real difference to how you feel every day and, importantly, long into the future.

Provides guidance for both employers and staff on promoting positive mental health and supporting those experiencing mental ill health in the workplace The importance of good mental health and wellbeing in the workplace is a subject of increased public awareness and governmental attention. Mental Health & Wellbeing in the Workplace contains expert guidance for improving mental health and supporting those experiencing mental ill health.

At last, an authoritative book filled with mindfulness tools that deliver an essential set of engaging, practical strategies along with key research and evidence-based information. The awareness boosting methods in this guidebook offer participants a means of reappraising and observing negative and anxious thoughts, habits, pain, and stress in fresh ways that produce new insight, positive change, and a sense of hope.

Nurses work in the foxhole of the healthcare battlefield. Their work is emotionally grueling and physically draining. This easy-to-follow book offers a new skill set to cope with the challenges of nursing and sustain compassion in the long term.

Leverage mindful awareness and intention to achieve better outcomes This book offers practical insights for the executive, manager or professional who feels like their RPM is maxed out in the red zone. By making the concepts and practices of mindfulness simple, practical and applicable, this book offers actionable hope for today's overworked and overwhelmed professional.

If people and organisations in healthcare cannot care for themselves, how can they care for the populations and communities they exist to serve? Healthcare professionals and their organisations are subject to growing pressures, including regular reviews and reorganisations, coping with the impact of an aging population, financial pressures, shrinking of career prospects and enhanced expectations of what a healthcare system can do - all within a fierce media spotlight.

Now, with the same blend of humour, poignancy and clear-eyed insight that The Resilience Project has become renowned for, Hugh explains how we can all get the tools we need to live a happier and more fulfilling life. In this book you will discover- * Powerful and touching stories from people Hugh has met and helped during his years on the road spreading the message of resilience. * An exploration of the neuroscience of 'resilience' and how we can address it. * The crucial role of parents in helping raise happier children (and how to do it).

Written by a leader in the field of Brain-Based Therapy, this book teaches you how to activate the parts of your brain that have been underactivated and calm down those areas that have been hyperactivated so that you feel positive about your life and remain calm during stressful times. You will also learn to improve your memory, boost your mood, have better relationships, and get a good night sleep.

Self-Care for New and Student Nurses presents self-care practices that must be learned and used consistently and in multiple settings to prepare new nurses for the clinical stressors to come. Filled with methods, tips, and exercises, this will book will guide new and student nurses to prioritize their own health needs in order to avoid burnout and premature exit from the nursing profession.

How can you protect your right to a balanced life in a profession that demands perfection? Medical life is challenging. The culture is competitive, the environment intense, the machinery complex and unwieldy, and the expectations high. Under such constant stress, many doctors sacrifice their own wellbeing to try and provide the best possible care for their patients. Only by first looking after yourself can you truly provide the best care for others. Non-clinical skills have untapped potential in providing both personal and - you guessed it - clinical benefits. Research has clearly shown that patient experience and patient health outcomes are better when doctors are compassionate and well themselves. Thriving doctors have better rapport with others, make less errors and feel more satisfied and engaged in their work.
Donation from UNSW Sydney and the South Western Sydney Clinical School.

Giving simple explanations, examples and exercises, Using Mindfulness Skills in Everyday Life shows clearly how to incorporate mindfulness into everyday life. The book, written by two NHS clinicians experienced in teaching mindfulness, takes a down-to-earth approach, providing straightforward answers to the most commonly asked questions.

On the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. Just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. Kalanithi chronicles his transformation from a naïve medical student into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality.

Can a person literally die of loneliness? Is there a connection between the ability to express emotions and Alzheimer's disease? Is there such a thing as a 'cancer personality'? Drawing on deep scientific research and Dr Gabor Mate's acclaimed clinical work, When the Body Says No provides the answers to critical questions about the mind-body link - and the role that stress and our emotional makeup play in an array of common diseases.