Well-being Champions Support Clinician Well-being Through COVID-19 Crisis
We appreciate and applaud all our Well-being Champions for the work they are doing on the front lines of this pandemic and on the front lines of fighting burnout and supporting well-being. Below, we wanted to highlight just a few of the many ways our Champions are making a difference.
Richard Wardrop III, MD, PhD, FAAP, FACP (MS), presented a webinar entitled “Well-being in Times of Difficulty” to the New York, Mississippi, and Alabama Chapters. In the webinar, Dr. Wardrop discussed the mental health challenges health care workers are experiencing as a consequence of the pandemic, offered resources for dealing with stress in difficult times, and encouraged attendees to start an ongoing dialogue within their practices and communities.
Laurie Duncan, MD, FACP (DC), has helped organize free Zoom yoga to members of the DC Chapter. Sessions are offered Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. and focus on both movement and mindfulness. The classes are taught by Sonja Richmond, MD, who is Board-certified in internal medicine and as a hospice medical director, as well as a certified yoga instructor. She is offering the free yoga sessions as a way to share her love of yoga with others. The sessions also feature background music by Nan Raphael, a former piccolo soloist with the U.S. Army Field Band. She is donating her music as a way to show her support to health care workers fighting COVID-19.
Louis Snitkoff, MD, FACP (NY), has been assisting a colleague, Marcus Friedrich, MD, FACP, in implementing a statewide initiative focused on physician well-being in the COVID era. Dr. Friedrich, the Chief Medical Officer for the Office of Quality and Patient Safety at the New York State Department of Health, reached out to Dr. Snitkoff to help provide well-being resources to share with attendees of his department's weekly web conference for physicians, which draws 6000 to 7000 clinicians per week.
Want to be featured in our newsletter? Share your success stories and those of inspirational colleagues (both ACP Champions and partners) by e-mailing acpwellbeing@acponline.org.
Back to the May 29, 2020 issue of ACP IM Thriving