Fatigue
Workforce fatigue has been a significant issue for EMHS since the start of the pandemic.
Fatigue continued to test staff during 2021–22, particularly those working in frontline clinical areas.
Absences caused by staff members contracting COVID-19, furloughing to comply with the State’s strict close-contact measures or having to stay home to care for isolating family members, further stretched our depleted ranks.
Many clinical staff were deployed to COVID response programs such as the COVID clinics, vaccination clinics and fit-testing teams.
Meanwhile staff were having to devote more time to COVID infection prevention and control measures.
An increase in personal leave and COVID leave during the reporting period was a likely reflection of the increased demands on our staff during the year.
A range of resources was made available to employees across EMHS to support them during this challenging period, including free counselling sessions through the Employee Assistance Program, a range of wellness resources and — at RPBG — access to 24/7 support through the Centre for Wellbeing and Sustainable Practice.
App puts wellbeing control in hands of staff
In September 2021, all AKG staff were given access to the Well-Being Index app — an anonymous web-based application that gives users the ability to monitor their own levels of fatigue, as well as instantly access tools and resources that can help prevent burnout, such as helpline numbers, self-help videos and pre-loaded publications.
The app was developed in the United States, specifically for healthcare workers and has been adopted widely by healthcare organisations there and here in Australia.
AKG wanted to empower staff to take ownership of their own mental wellbeing and provide them with tools that would predict their risk of fatigue, depression, burnout, anxiety/stress, reduced mental/physical quality of life, and poor work-life balance.
The app enabled staff to compare their levels of wellbeing and fatigue with those of their peers nationally, as well as monitor changes in their personal level of wellbeing over time.
Feedback from the 125 staff members who signed up to the app had been positive, with many reporting it useful for tracking their wellbeing.