Shaping an Institutional Workplace Wellness Program to Fit an Academic Health Science Center Library
Location
Poster Session
Start Date
11-10-2019 3:30 PM
End Date
11-10-2019 5:00 PM
Type of Work
Poster
Description
Objective: In 2018, The University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) established the Office of Wellbeing as an umbrella structure to enhance the physical health, emotional wellbeing, and professional fulfillment of faculty, staff, and students. The UMMC Office of Wellbeing sponsors workshops, lectures, and classes on a variety of wellness topics. Wellness events are held primarily in the clinical areas of the large academic medical center campus during the noon hour. Attending these events can be challenging for library faculty and staff that are juggling busy work schedules, responsibilities, and duties. The aim is to improve accessibility and participation in wellness activities.
Methods: A Rowland Medical Library (RML) faculty member was selected to be a “Wellness Champion”. The role of a Wellness Champion is to support the Office of Wellbeing’s initiatives of creating a healthy work culture in their own department or division. The RML Wellness Champion initiated quarterly wellness sessions for library faculty and staff in the library classroom at a convenient, scheduled time.
Results: To integrate the institutional wellness mission and improve participation of library faculty and staff, wellness sessions are scheduled quarterly in the library. The sessions focus on one of five target areas identified by the Office of Wellbeing: physical health and fitness, emotional/mental wellness, social wellness, intellectual/professional wellness, and financial wellness.
Conclusions: Feedback on the wellness sessions from library faculty and staff has been overwhelmingly positive. Bringing the sessions to the library makes it easier for RML employees to benefit from institutional wellness initiatives. Scheduling wellness events at the department level could serve as a model at the institution for other departments to replicate.
Shaping an Institutional Workplace Wellness Program to Fit an Academic Health Science Center Library
Poster Session
Objective: In 2018, The University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) established the Office of Wellbeing as an umbrella structure to enhance the physical health, emotional wellbeing, and professional fulfillment of faculty, staff, and students. The UMMC Office of Wellbeing sponsors workshops, lectures, and classes on a variety of wellness topics. Wellness events are held primarily in the clinical areas of the large academic medical center campus during the noon hour. Attending these events can be challenging for library faculty and staff that are juggling busy work schedules, responsibilities, and duties. The aim is to improve accessibility and participation in wellness activities.
Methods: A Rowland Medical Library (RML) faculty member was selected to be a “Wellness Champion”. The role of a Wellness Champion is to support the Office of Wellbeing’s initiatives of creating a healthy work culture in their own department or division. The RML Wellness Champion initiated quarterly wellness sessions for library faculty and staff in the library classroom at a convenient, scheduled time.
Results: To integrate the institutional wellness mission and improve participation of library faculty and staff, wellness sessions are scheduled quarterly in the library. The sessions focus on one of five target areas identified by the Office of Wellbeing: physical health and fitness, emotional/mental wellness, social wellness, intellectual/professional wellness, and financial wellness.
Conclusions: Feedback on the wellness sessions from library faculty and staff has been overwhelmingly positive. Bringing the sessions to the library makes it easier for RML employees to benefit from institutional wellness initiatives. Scheduling wellness events at the department level could serve as a model at the institution for other departments to replicate.