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July 26, 2024 9:45 am

Prevention is so much better than a cure

by Sharee Johnson

Prevention is so much better than a cure every day of the week. Proactive action can help you be well, no matter where you work or what you do. Including working in healthcare. Healthcare workers have so much opportunity to shift the focus to prevention, to generate more health and wellbeing in our communities.  When […]

Footprints leading away for you in the sand on a beach near the waters edge. Some of the prints are made by bare feet but one set has been made by a jogger wearing sneakers
May 21, 2024 2:07 pm

Self improvement creates wellbeing

by Sharee Johnson

There is a tension between accepting yourself as you are and the notion of self improvement. As high achievers, doctors often describe themselves as life long learners. Some even seem addicted to academic achievement, but is this the same as self improvement, or something else? The language of self improvement is out of vogue. Now […]

Mixed group of health professions in discussion around a boardroom table. A projected chart of data is being displayed on a screen behind the medical professionsal
April 23, 2024 10:36 am

Leading a Hospital Unit Effectively

by Sharee Johnson

Leading and creating a hospital unit workplace culture, where people want to be. A provocation for generative thinking. Shanafelt et. al. have demonstrated and concluded that creating a wellbeing culture in healthcare needs to happen at the local unit level.1 Professors Amy Edmondson and Don Berwick delivered a keynote together last week at the IHI […]

March 28, 2024 8:30 am

Doctors celebrate the value of having a Professional Coach

by Sharee Johnson

Being in a room where doctors are openly celebrating the value of having a professional coach is a novel experience for me. We had the pleasure in March of attending the Creative Careers in Medicine Conference. A gathering of medical creatives and curiosos. The speakers were inspiring and really showcased a breadth and depth of […]

Woman walking in park
November 20, 2023 12:49 pm

Personal Agency is Key to Individual Wellbeing and to Organisational Change

by Sharee Johnson

According to the Stanford WellMD model of healthcare, healthcare worker well being1 is achieved from 20% personal resilience and 80% organisational responsibility (changing systems and structures in the workplace). The Stanford research is impressive and guides a great deal of our work. It’s impact in helping healthcare organisations to get serious about their responsibilities to […]

September 30, 2023 4:28 pm

Medicine is an inexact science.

by Sharee Johnson

Researchers and clinicians work hard to bring evidence to the table, to notice and measure patterns, to share information in the service of everyone. And medicine has done an extraordinary job of this. For example:   🌱Average global life expectancy has more than doubled   🌱Child mortality and maternal mortality rates are lower  🌱We are […]

September 26, 2023 11:19 am

Why doctors and coaches need to retreat for balance

by Sharee Johnson

In retreat, in the quiet, we can listen for our true selves and reconnect to our own meaning. The world is incredibly noisy. There is so much junk to sift through. I find it tricky to work out what to attend to, what to read, listen to, watch. Is it just me? Doctors in the […]

2 pair hands holding a red heart shape
September 14, 2023 2:53 pm

Compassionate Care Competencies need our attention

by Sharee Johnson

Bedside manner and communication skills are the ‘tip of the compassion iceberg’ according to Dominic O. Vachon. In the big machine that is modern day healthcare, we have prioritised throughput, technical wizardry and the financial bottom line. In other words, we still talk a lot about compassion, but we are not walking the talk often […]

August 31, 2023 7:46 am

I see you, tell me what you truly need

by Sharee Johnson

  Being seen is the foundation of wellbeing AND therefore the foundation of high performance. Before 2011 I said things like ‘as long as the surgeon is skilled and competent, we don’t care about the rest’. Let me be clear I was talking about his technical, surgical skills. I was wrong in two important ways. […]

colourful jigsaw puzzles
August 23, 2023 7:40 am

The Well-Being Index Partner

by Sharee Johnson

What does make a difference to doctor wellbeing and performance? We are interested in how coaching can alter doctor wellbeing and performance. So we are constantly seeking ways to measure the impact of our work.We are really delighted to be partnering with Beamtree who offer the Well-Being Index (WBI) to healthcare workers in Australia and […]

Wooden Wheel cogs
June 13, 2023 2:04 pm

It’s the system you say…

by Sharee Johnson

Systemic and structural changes are required within healthcare.   It’s the system you say. I agree there are systemic and structural changes required within healthcare. Who is in charge of these systems? Who can orchestrate the changes? Who has the power and capacity to change them so that doctors’ lives can be enhanced by their […]

yellow background, wooden statue thinking
May 29, 2023 3:29 pm

Coaching is often described as counter-cutural

by Sharee Johnson

It is designed to create new thinking, to widen the field of vision we are working in. The work I do in medicine coaching, facilitating workshops and speaking, is sometimes described as counter-cultural. I am curious about the doctor’s experience of our conversation or what they are hearing from me. I often ask medics to […]