Claire Davies, a practice nurse at Mahoe Medical, felt motivated to consider how she could find something practical to directly address improving the mental wellbeing of her wider team. She ran a four-week challenge dubbed ‘Mahoe Med Fitness Fiesta’ resulting in a team-wide uptake.
The following story was contributed and written by Claire Davies, Mahoe Medical practice nurse.
Compassion fatigue and burnout. Words we hear increasingly often about people working in health care. Things we are likely to be witnessing amongst colleagues or experiencing ourselves. We are advised to self-care, build resilience and a have good work life balance. But how do we actually do this?
I am a practice nurse working at Mahoe Medical, a large GP practice in Te Awamutu and I have the role of mental health champion.
The Mental Health Foundation has produced several excellent resources on enhancing mental wellbeing – Five Ways to Wellbeing (Connect, Be Active, Keep Learning, Give, and Take Notice). Post pandemic there is a lot of work being done around promoting mental wellbeing in staff. I felt motivated to consider how we could find something practical to directly address improving the mental wellbeing of our own.
I am a late bloomer to enjoying physical activity. I am constantly amazed at the positive effects it has on making me feel better physically, socially, and mentally. Through experience, I believe that being physically active ticks all the boxes for the Five Ways to Wellbeing. So, the idea of a staff fitness challenge was born. Our directors and practice manager were enthusiastic and very supportive, demonstrating this through providing incentives and prizes.
The challenge was named ‘Mahoe Med Fitness Fiesta’ and ran for four weeks. We had a score board and each week we had to make a goal of how much exercise we aimed to do, whether it be 30 minutes or 10 hours. By the end of the week, we would record on the board if we attempted any exercise (1 point), met our goal (2 points), or exceed it (3 points). No matter our level of fitness, the challenge was against ourselves to do more, and in doing so gave us each an equal opportunity to win.
To help promote physical activity, team members generously hosted events to share their knowledge and experience of an activity they were involved in. We did yogalates, line dancing, boxing, meditation, dog walking, cycling, went to the driving range, and climbed our local Maunga Kakepuku.
The team regularly told me about physical activities they had been doing independently or with family and friends. Some of this included getting some space from the kids to spend time alone with their partner doing a weights session, encouraging and taking a colleague out walking on a lunch break, joining a gym and going after work, buying a bike and going for rides with their partner, and doing yoga for the first time. Months later, colleagues still tell me what physical activities they have been doing.
Each of our 32 team members, who participated to any degree, received a $20 voucher to a local café. There was a $250 prize for first place, $100 for most varied activities done, $100 for a people’s choice award and $100 for most adventurous activity.
A survey was designed to evaluate how much the Fitness Fiesta had met the Five Ways to Wellbeing. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Results showed that people:
People were asked to describe in a few words what they liked best about the Fiesta. Responses included 'fun and connection', 'positive engagement', 'sense of community', 'fun activities with work mates', 'all together', 'connecting', 'having fun', 'frigging fantastic', 'motivational and inspiring'.
When asked what could be improved, responses were predominantly around making the Fiesta longer and more often, having more staff-led activities, and including creative activities.
This initiative was a simple idea that although required a fair amount of organising and energy, the outcomes were well beyond my expectations and completely worth it!
If you’re interested to learn more about this initiative, please feel welcome to email Claire Davies.
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