LSUHSC Wellness Committee

 

LSU Wellness Krewe:
Self-Care for Healthcare

Mission Statement

The goal of the LSUHSC Wellness Committee is to promote a healthy learning and working environment, building resiliency, and personal well-being among faculty, staff, residents, and students in LSUHSC School of Medicine and the Health Sciences Center.

Healthcare professionals are exposed to high levels of distress in the course of their profession and are particularly susceptible to experiencing burnout, which is a state of physical, emotional or mental exhaustion combined with doubts about your competence and the value of your work.  Burnout is not the only consequence of high levels of distress. Other related conditions include depression, substance abuse and suicide.

Healthcare professionals experiencing prolonged and high levels of distress are reported to be at a higher risk of making poor decisions, displaying hostile attitudes toward patients, making more medical errors, and having difficult relationships with co-workers.  All of this impacts our own emotional health and well-being as well as the people around us.   

Remember, you’re an individual, not just a healthcare professional.  As individuals, we are happiest when making healthy lifestyle choices.  Taking care of ourselves will in turn improve patient care, our own relationships and the LSUHSC community.  When we take care of ourselves our communication is better, we make better decisions, errors are decreased and we have a better attitude.

The content within the wellness committee website offers information on well-being, stress, depression, alcohol use, suicide, mindfulness, PTSD, work-life balance and other resources that are helpful for our working community.  Take a look at the information, think about areas within your daily routines that may be beneficial to change, and consider implementing these strategies.