FirstHealth Center for Provider Well-being Serves Providers and Families

Center Offers a Wealth of Resources to Address Provider Burnout

By Susan D. Kopynec, PA-C Emeritus, DFAAPA

May 28, 2020

The ever-changing landscape of healthcare is creating a highly complex and demanding work environment for medical professionals. The resulting high burnout rates among providers have created a crisis that must be acknowledged and addressed.

In response to this growing epidemic of healthcare provider burnout, in 2016 FirstHealth of the Carolinas, in Pinehurst, North Carolina, established its Center for Provider Wellbeing (CPW) as an innovative and comprehensive benefit for FirstHealth providers and their families. The Center promotes well-being, and helps to prevent burnout, increase resilience, restore health, and foster intentional engagement.

The mission of the Center is to serve providers and their families by offering any needed professional or personal support through group-based or individually customized programs and services related to the five facets of well-being. The “Father of Positive Psychology,” Dr. Martin Seligman, from the University of Pennsylvania, has extensively researched well-being and developed the PERMA model which includes Positive Emotions, Engagement, Relationships (nurturing), Meaning (and purpose), and Accomplishments or Achievements.

To increase commitment to well-being, CPW actively collaborates with:

  • Coalition for Physician Well-being to share the Coalition’s vision of a healthcare culture where healthcare providers achieve balance in their lives and derive joy from their practice, where there is a commitment to communication, collaboration, care, and compassion. This organization has prerequisites for its Medicus Integra Award that CPW uses as a roadmap to help guide its program.
  • National Academy of Medicine (NAM) In 2017, CPW was one of the first 130 organizations across the country to provide a statement of commitment on the NAM website to address burnout. NAM’s “Clinician Well-Being Knowledge Hub” is an outstanding resource for clinicians who want to learn about researched and validated methods for addressing burnout within their organizations or practices.

The Center for Provider Wellbeing is entirely supported by the generous donations of the community to The Foundation of FirstHealth and the Reid Physician Enrichment Endowment.

 

Susan D. Kopynec, PA-C Emeritus, DFAAPA, is director, Center for Provider Wellbeing, The Foundation of FirstHealth, in Pinehurst, North Carolina. Contact Susan at [email protected].

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