The Heartwood Clinician Wellbeing Commitment Statement
In the work we’ve done in healthcare over the past decade, we’ve seen a national crisis emerge.
The number of clinicians struggling with stress and burnout is at an all-time high. Rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide are on the rise. Something must be done.
We know that being in the trenches of healthcare can be stressful. That’s why we’re dedicated to giving healthcare providers the strategies and tools they need to be resilient and engaged.
Our country’s healthcare providers are on the frontlines being asked to provide empathic, compassionate care day in and day out. They’re asked to leave their own troubles at home. They’re asked to show up with healing presence, seeing patient after patient—often without breaks.
Stoicism and the fear of losing their licenses are built into many healthcare cultures, resulting in environments where people often feel they can’t reach out for help. We’re seeing more and more clinicians exhibiting signs of post traumatic stress disorder due to the experiences they’re having at work.
Heartwood Healing is committed to helping the individual boost their self-mastery, mindfulness, and resilience skills. We believe that in order to serve patients with empathy, presence and clarity, clinicians and caregivers must rely on a core of inner strength and resilience. Yet this inner core is chronically undernourished. Using evidence-based techniques, Heartwood Healing programs empower providers to find their Heartwood—the place where strength resides.
Heartwood Healing is an education and training organization that helps clinicians of all kinds activate their own self-mastery in order to create sustainable health and wellbeing. When healthcare providers are nourished and resilient from the inside out, it creates resilient leadership that has a direct impact on cultures, teams, and patients.
We’ve worked with a wide variety of clinicians and administrative staff including medical students, chief medical officers, physicians, nursing staff, advanced practice clinicians, recreational and occupational therapists, chaplains, social workers, art therapists, psychologists, psychotherapists, and more.
We know that organizational change is also a critical part of clinician wellbeing, and we love to partner with organizations that are actively working to create a better working environment for their clinicians.
In the last week alone, we learned that two more nurse practitioners committed suicide. And a physician said she’d contemplated ending her own life during residency.
Friends, we must act.
It’s time we all rise to help our nation’s caregivers and healers get the care and nourishment they need. Heartwood Healing is rising to meet this need, and is more committed than ever to the health and wellbeing of healthcare providers.