Healthy People Heal People: Culture of Encouragement

John Burton, M.D., senior vice president and chair of the Emergency Department; Paul Davenport, vice president of Emergency Services and Care Management; and Lisa Uherick, M.D., medical director of Pediatric Emergency, show their support for our Emergency teams. At the time the photo was taken, we had 1,271 employees in the Emergency service line.

It’s OK to ask for help. That’s the message that Lisa Uherick, M.D., medical director of Pediatric Emergency at CRMH wanted to make sure her teams understood when she developed the idea for Healthy People Heal People (HPHP).

“Due to the nature of the work in the ED and how dedicated our teams are to the care of our patients, burnout is common, and the work can take an emotional toll,” explains Dr. Uherick. “The pandemic has made it more obvious—if we don’t take care of ourselves, we can’t take care of anyone else.”

With the goal to create a culture of encouragement in all of Emergency Services, a committee of 20 people from across the service line officially launched the HPHP initiative in October 2020.

The committee has already done many things in the department to help people take care of themselves, including:

• Organizing peer support groups
• Setting up monthly workshop sessions to check in with Emergency Medicine (EM) residents
• Creating posters to encourage each other
• Partnering with our Sustainability department to provide education on why it’s important to eat healthy, local foods
• Hosting well-being challenges

One of the ways that Dr. Uherick practices self-care is by reading and listening to podcasts. When she comes across a message that could be helpful for her team, she sends an email (called episodes) with a quote and tips on how to apply it to daily lives. It started as something sent once a month, but when the pandemic hit, it felt necessary to share stories every week. The 81st episode was recently sent out, which can be found on the HPHP hub.

“We’ve been working hard to try to decrease the stigma of getting help if you’re burned out, if you’re feeling depressed or if you can’t shake a tough case,” says Dr. Uherick. “There’s a lot of fear about getting a mental health diagnosis and concern about your leader finding out if you went to EAP (Employee Assistance Program). We're all in this together, and sharing tools to sustain ourselves is important.”

Dr. Uherick is candid in sharing her own positive experience with EAP, and the HPHP initiative recently started including an EAP orientation session for all new emergency providers to try to normalize the potential need to seek mental health care.

“Giving employees permission to take care of themselves and making sure we are taking care of each other is the foundation we need to take even better care of our patients,” says Dr. Uherick.

The HPHP initiative currently covers Emergency Services, but there are many others around the organization who focus on well-being work for their teams. If you'd like to bring more well-being support to your area, be sure to share your ideas with your leaders.