The serious business of fun - Introducing programmed games and creativity sessions to improve Emergency Department staff wellness
Background : Wellness, as described in the RCEM ‘Maintaining Wellbeing in Emergency Medicine’ document is a dynamic interplay of physical, psychological and social factors. It is recognised that healthcare professionals are poor at looking after their own wellbeing . Stress and stress related illnesses affects individuals, the team and the workforce. Emergency medicine is known to have a high rate of burn out. Within our department, the Emergency Department of the Whittington Hospital ,we wished to improve staff wellness and to demonstrate that we viewed this as a priority. We also wished to make this a dynamic process.
Method:Most strategies to improve wellness consist of advice on balancing workload and positive lifestyle choices regarding either physical health eg diet and sleep or emotional wellbeing eg mindfulness.
We wanted to look at the benefits of providing staff with specific timetabled activities incorporating fun and creativity .Fun and laughter have documented health benefits both physical and emotional. Fun theory (a term introduced by Volkswagen) has shown the benefits of introducing fun into changing behaviour. Creativity and fun are closely connected. Both are similar to mindfulness in that they encourage being non-judgemental and in the moment.
This study looks at the data from nine specially designed staff wellness days. The programme involved playing games and creative tasks.
Participants completed feedback forms including questions based on the Warwick- Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale. This is a positively worded item scale covering most aspects of positive mental health.
Results:110 staff attended of which 105 (95.5 %) stated they really enjoyed the day.
On a scale of 1 -10 - 90 staff (81.8%) graded the day as 8 or above with regards to feeling relaxed , 95(86.4%) to feeling connected with others , 89 (80.9%) regarding an ability to think clearly, 86 (78.2%) to feeling confident , 102 (92.7%) to feeling energised , 98 (89.1%) to feeling appreciated , 104(94.5%) to feeling cheerful.
97 participants (88.2%) felt that doing fun activities was really important .
89 participants (80.9%) felt that their wellness was important to the department. On a scale of 1-10 93 participants (84.5%) answered 8 or above when asked how important they felt events like this were. 103 participants (93.6%) wanted more events like this one.
70% of participants also added comments. An analysis of themes represented in these showed that 38.5% of comments were complimentary about the day. 20% of comments related positively to relationships individuals felt towards the team. 11.9% related to staff feeling appreciated.
Conclusion : We feel that staff appreciated being given time and space where fun and creativity were promoted and these stimulated positive aspects of mental health. In some cases they felt that these days strengthened relationships within the team and made them feel appreciated
They also felt that their wellness was important to the department.
Going forward we feel it is important to prioritise staff wellness by creating time and activities dedicated to it. Incorporating fun and creativity into these events is well received.
