Dr Samantha (Sam) Bendall1
1CareFlight, Sydney, Australia
With an emphasis on human factors in training and ongoing practice, rules around fatigue and a culture of maintaining fitness to work, Aeromedical organisations are already more evolved in what contributes to wellbeing than most healthcare settings. However, COVID has stressed our systems to a point where cracks may show, and leadership behaviours may wane. COVID has changed our world significantly and in some ways permanently. We have a choice as to how we shape the future of our organisations from here. Do we try to ignore what has happened and reinstate business as usual? Or do we listen to what has happened, learn what we can and actively shape how our organisations feel and operate going forwards.
Wellbeing 2.0 is a concept shared by the Stanford WellMD Centre. It acknowledges the transition from traditional healthcare cultures which resulted in harm for many, to an era of awareness of the need for and impact of clinician wellness. But it’s not enough, and to truly improve safety for clinicians, patients, organisations and systems, wellbeing needs to become the 4th KPI in order to deliver safe and efficient patient care, grow wellness-centred leaders, build resilience into organisations and allow Aeromedical teams to truly perform at their best.
Biography:
Dr Sam Bendall is an Emergency Physician, Retrieval Specialist and the Director of Education at CareFlight. She is passionate about creating teams who have excellent teamwork and communication skills and human factors awareness as she has seen how these contribute greatly to safer teams and safer care. In her hospital role she is the Deputy Director of the Sydney Local Health District MDOK program focussed on physician wellness, and in particular Leadership and Performance. She attended the Stanford Chief Wellness Officers Course in 2019 and is a passionate advocate for the impact of wellness on performance and safety.