Since the program first launched more than a decade ago, 800 healthcare workers at Durham, N.C.-based Duke University Health System and 17,000 nationwide have been trained as well-being ambassadors.
The virtual and in-person training sessions, led by the Duke Center for the Advancement of Well-being Science, provide trainees with "bite-sized" intervention tactics to boost well-being, along with the research and source behind it.
These are simple things that have a significant and enduring effect on one's well-being, Bryan Sexton, PhD, director of the well-being science center, told Becker's. The activities can be done for just a few minutes and provide long-term benefits, he said.
"What we found over time is that you can't just go in and give a group of burned-out healthcare workers a complicated, 10-step plan," he said, highlighting the significance of the short tactics.
Tapping into positive emotions
Many of the interventions focus on enhancing various positive emotions to recover from an emotional "heaviness," Dr. Sexton said. One of the more popular interventions focuses on gratitude, an emotion that is relatively easy to access no matter which level of well-being one is starting at.
Awe, wonder and inspiration are other emotions that help one to bounce back and recover. Humor and hope are more difficult to access, Dr. Sexton said.
After completing the training, healthcare workers share their biggest takeaways with colleagues, such as their personal experience using a given tool and how long it takes to complete, he said.
"That helps the well-being ambassadors to be that light in the darkness," Dr. Sexton said. "The intent is that during training, you use it yourself so that you can speak from experience when sharing it."
Nationwide reach
The training started in 2009 as an offshoot of Duke's patient safety officer training.
Since the sessions became offered virtually, access across the country has increased. Now, instead of completing hours of training in person, the courses can also be completed virtually at one's own pace.
"We can put a lot of people in one Zoom for one training, and hit all kinds of regions of the country," Dr. Sexton said. This includes those at rural hospitals, large teaching hospitals and primary care facilities, he said.
Participants can also earn continuing education credits, which are international, he said.
The well-being movement in healthcare
Dr. Sexton compared the well-being movement to the patient-safety movement in the late 1990s and the early 2000s. At that time, health systems lacked patient-safety officers and budgets dedicated to patient safety, he said.
It took 25 years for health systems to get to where they are now in terms of commitment to patient safety through budgets, committees and leadership. Healthcare organizations are going through some of the same phases now with well-being, he said.
"We're moving much more quickly than 25 years. We're probably going to do it in about five to seven years," Dr. Sexton said in reference to where systems are now with regard to patient safety commitment. "The urgent need is so profound."
The pandemic accelerated this evolution, Dr. Sexton said. Healthcare leaders are quickly recognizing that there is a need to address well-being, to deploying an arsenal of means to address it, he said.
A local approach
"There is no one thing you can do for well-being that helps everyone," Dr. Sexton said. "There is no secret sauce. What we found is that every work setting needs to tailor well-being strategies to their local needs."
In order to meet that requirement, Duke trains ambassadors so that each department or team can have local champions of well-being efforts. They are not always the leaders of their units, but they help to ensure well-being is prioritized in discussions about new interventions or procedures, for example.
"We have to make these changes for our patients, but how quickly can we do this and still not overwhelm our staff?" is one way it could be brought up in conversations, Dr. Sexton said.
Healthcare is full of people who chose to put themselves in harm's way and be vulnerable, and those professionals deserve a well-being champion who is looking out for their team members, he added.
"The world needs well-being ambassadors now more than ever," Dr. Sexton said.