Down the Horizon

One hospital or a small clinic is not supposed to have a business atmosphere, I tell you that again.

Cold architectural design, front staff dressed in business attire pushed to behave rather robotic than sympathetic towards the issues patients come to them in the first place. When did a patient become a client? When did a nurse become a robot that (not who) is expected to never fall sick after 10 h working a day with only one day off in 2 weeks’ time? Not to mention and open this another topic of overwhelming exposure to laser, radiofrequency, ultrasound, and other forms of radiation used in the aesthetic industry today. When did a medical nurse become two persons working at two positions – one in gynecology, as a help to a treating Dr and as a beauty therapist that is overexposed to different radiations from machines used to “tighten the skin” of ladies that seem unfortunate not to have anything better to do.

So in all that money-rush exhibitionism, there is a lack of a proper workplace health/wellness manager who would coordinate and balance between that money-oriented clinic and the actual human beings in need of health. If one clinic wants to avoid burnout of the staff, and them quitting after that, then being able to have someone who will organize strategies in enhancing productivity by actually being fair towards fellow humans, then that would be the right path in 21 century to follow. Also, women should be naturally granted 3 days off during the menstrual period just like it happened (finally) in Spain (21 century came). And if someone from your team has health issues due to being overwhelmed with the workload or falling on a low immunity system, then 3-5 days off is not, is not, is not enough. Staff shouldn’t feel like their whole life and time evolves around your business. In more developed countries wellness managers exist and they do help a lot. They organize time for activities that charge the team up, making them feel good again, bringing them back to “self”.

A wellness manager is someone who worked in such an environment, saw the flaws herself, and may be an ex-nurse, ex-doctor or Psychologist who is caring and objective at the same time. She is able to feel a person, build friendly trust, and bond in the team in a natural, not that fake, really fake way (you know what I mean- you can feel that fake smile, learned optimism, even aggressive optimism, and just has this weird approach that makes you feel even more uncomfortable). This person works for the sake of the staff not for the manager’s “money goals”. The idea is to boost productivity but in a way that is comfortable and fair, good for the Team. This person recognizes triggers of stress, and anxiety built in the clinic/hospital and promotes a scheduler that is filled with activities like relaxation time with stretching and yoga, karaoke for singing, and comedy games for boosting laughter that is one of the most important things in any human’s life, gratitude time where each staff tells what are they grateful for, praising each colleague- telling what they like about them, talking about emotions nowadays people avoid to talk about, having some recreational time like walking or running in a park, and so on. This time is scheduled during working hours, not outside. Let’s say that “park day” when the team can do some yoga and stretching can be scheduled in the morning of a less frequent day in smaller groups. “Karaoke time” can be used also in the same manner, and so on.

This way you as a director-employer and your staff will be much happier, you will see better overall performance, and you will avoid a toxic environment you might be making due to a lack of this very knowledge- that you actually need to take care of your team’s mental health by having someone to help you with. Being compassionate will bring you long term productivity and better performance.