Wellbeing Champions
- Cardi Parties and Canadian Tuxedos
- Finding the Meaning in Your Day
- Taking care of your wellbeing with Alicia Ali
- Taking care of yourself to help others
Cardi Parties and Canadian Tuxedos
VGH Pharmacy Team gets Fashionable on Fridays
Infectious laughter filled the room as three women, all dressed in polka dot blouses, reminisced about their favourite Fashion Payday Friday themes.
“One week was cardigans, so we had a cardi party,” said Melanie Lamoureux.
“The funniest one, I think, is the Canadian tuxedo. I really loved that one,” shared Krista MacAulay.
“Waiter uniform, with black pants and a white top – that was cute,” added Christina Taitley.
“Hawaiian was really fun too,” MacAulay chimed in.
What started as a fun outfit coordination between two coworkers in December 2023 has now grown into a bi-weekly “booster shot” for morale for the entire pharmacy team at Victoria Hospital.
“After COVID were we feeling a little bit down and this bi-weekly activity just came about as a way to counter that,” said MacAulay, a pharmacist. “We wanted to look forward to something and laugh a bit more.”
Every two weeks, the team celebrates their payday with a unique fashion theme. Over the past year, the team has dressed up in a variety of coordinated outfits including polka dots, neon, plaid, florals, leopard print, various colours, camo, monochrome, pieces of flair, and many more.
Finding the Meaning in Your Day
Physician and Resident Wellness
Growing up, Dr. Seth Marks remembers his mother’s words as he went out the door each day: “Do good!” Her advice continues to resonate with him to this day.
“As I look back, those words carry so much meaning. It encouraged me to perform well on tests or in class, to behave and be respectful when visiting someone’s house, and to prioritize my own well-being. You need to be ‘doing good’ in all those things to achieve overall wellness,” he explained.
Dr. Marks, a pediatric endocrinologist and the Leadership and Wellness Lead in the Department of Pediatrics and Child Health at Children’s Hospital-Health Sciences Centre, is deeply passionate about wellbeing.
“Finding meaning and purpose every day is essential. We work in a very stressful field and put in long hours. Wellbeing and wellness are important for everyone and for healthcare workers. There’s evidence to show that the wellbeing of physicians and other healthcare providers’ wellbeing impacts patient outcomes,” he said.
To foster a culture of wellness in his department, Dr. Marks has facilitated a number of initiatives.
Taking care of your wellbeing with Alicia Ali
“While working in health care is so rewarding to our diverse population of health-care workers, it’s no secret that it can be very taxing on their health and wellbeing. Finding a career focused on the wellbeing of my health-care colleagues feels like a dream come true for me.”
Alicia Ali was raised by a single mom who worked overtime as a nurse almost every week at different hospitals and personal care homes in Winnipeg. This experience offered her an early look at how rewarding a career in health care can be – but also the significant impacts it can have on mental health and stress without the space and tools available to prioritize personal wellbeing.
Ali now channels this understanding into her work as a workplace wellness consultant at St. Boniface Hospital (SBH), where she focuses on helping health care workers at SBH achieve a “harmonious balance” with their wellbeing.
“Wellbeing, to me, means a holistic state of balance and fulfillment in various aspects of life—physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, financial and social. It involves feeling healthy and resilient, having a sense of purpose and meaningful connections with others, along with the ability to manage stress effectively.”
Ali knows that in fast-paced and, often, stressful health-care environments, staff wellbeing often benefits from having the tools or resources needed to grow, adapt and thrive.
Taking care of yourself to help others
Wellness committee dedicated to employee wellbeing
“To bring joy, fun and mindfulness to employees is an absolute privilege,” said Amy Ashcroft, Prairie Mountain Health (PMH) Wellness Committee Chair and staff development coordinator.
Ashcroft, along with colleague Darra Black, Manager – Staff Development and Education, Human Resources for PMH, are part of the Wellness Committee, which was formed with the goal of improving wellness within the region through initiatives that would improve workplace culture and staff morale while trying to reduce the impact of burnout. The committee is led by Ashcroft and Black as Chair and Co-Chair, supported by Lara Bossert – Regional Lead of Communications, as the Executive Sponsor as well as staff volunteers, whose efforts include planning wellbeing events and activities for teams to participate in.
“It has been an eye-opening new passion for me,” shared Ashcroft. “For staff to serve our clients well, we need to ensure our staff are well. People in health care often are so focused on taking care of others and not ourselves. The most important lesson is – you have to take care of yourself to help others.”