We are Human Too: Shining a Light on Healthcare Professional Wellbeing
‘We are Human Too’ was an exciting, extra-curricular programme of free, virtual events focussing on various aspects of healthcare professional wellbeing. The programme ran from February to March and was led by three of the Medical Demonstrators (Dr Rowan Ah-See, Dr Zoë Arnott and Dr Eva Peck), in collaboration with the Bute Medical Society. The programme was open to all students and staff in the School of Medicine.
Medicine can be a challenging career at the best of times, and this has only been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Whilst the University offers a range of student support and wellbeing tools, medical students and healthcare professionals can face unique challenges in their careers.
The series comprised seven events and focused on various aspects of healthcare professional wellbeing. The Medical Demonstrators shared their own experiences of making mistakes as junior doctors and their career pathways so far and hosted a Q&A session. The external speakers’ presentations ranged from expert clinicians discussing mental health (Dr Caroline Walker), burnout (Dr Clare Ashley), strategies to improve wellbeing (Dr Rachel Morris) and the importance of civility in healthcare (Dr Alison White). The organisers were particularly grateful that the external speakers donated their time free of charge, despite some of them doing wellbeing/resilience/coaching as part of their professional careers. The programme proved very popular with both students and staff, attracting a core audience of 195 attendees with many people attending multiple events.
A creative project, ‘Life in Lockdown’, ran alongside the talk series to collate experiences of School of Medicine students and staff during the pandemic. View the gallery of the submissions.
‘We are Human Too’ aimed to support the School of Medicine community through this difficult time by making conversations about wellbeing commonplace, help prepare students for the challenges of their future careers and empower all to be active participants in creating and maintaining supportive cultures, both now and in the future.
Our careers may be based on helping others, but we can need just as much help – for We are Human Too.
