Healthy staff impact patients

This article highlights the increasing awareness that exists regarding the importance of maintaining and improving staff health and wellbeing in the NHS. Decreased abstinence and improved motivation along with improved care for patients are just some of the benefits mentioned. It also points out the importance of having senior board backing for such projects in order to ensure implementation of the specific activities that improve staff health and wellbeing. 

Rather than reducing workforce numbers in times of financial hardship, it suggests trusts could make savings by improving staff health and wellbeing, thus reducing absenteeism, reducing use of locums or agency staff and having a more engaged and productive workforce. They cite the example of York teaching hospital and the changes it has made to have a holistic approach to staff wellbeing, with the ethos being that they want staff to ‘enjoy coming to work.’ They have seen a reduction in absenteeism and long term sick as a result of the measures introduced. 

Certainly it makes more sense to reduce absenteeism by improving staff health and wellbeing rather than the punitive approach that some trusts seem to adopt. Whilst research and common sense would say that improving staff health and wellbeing will reduce absenteeism, improve motivation and enhance overall care in the NHS, it is also clearly understood from an energetic and esoteric perspective that improving staff health and wellbeing will impact the care of patients. How is this? 

According to Esoteric Philosophy and the Ageless Wisdom teachings as presented by Serge Benhayon of Universal Medicine, we are energetic beings and as such we are all interconnected even though we may appear to be solid and separate. “No man is an island” is a very accurate saying – for we are all one in the ocean of energy. Thus everything we do, say or think impacts not just ourselves, our body and our health and wellbeing, but those we are in contact with and indeed even those further afield.

If someone urinates in a swimming pool, the urine does not just stay in one little pool or spot but ultimately affects the whole pool – likewise, everything we do/say/think has an energetic effect on the whole of the world, the universe, indeed the cosmos! If that’s a bit too mind-blowing, just stick with the fact that everything you do/say/think affects your own health and wellbeing and that of those you come in touch with. For example if someone loses their temper and is angry that anger impacts the health and wellbeing of the individual who loses their temper but also can detrimentally affect those nearby, especially if they take on the person’s anger or react to it and become angry themselves. 

Esoterically the emotions are harming to the human body and part of maintaining good health and wellbeing is to be able to remain centred, non-reactive and non-emotional no matter what is going on around us. The ability to stay cool in a crisis, a still point in the midst of chaos are all beneficial to maintaining health and wellbeing. The NHS is a stressful place to work, with frontline clinical staff often under pressure from many directions, be it the need to meet targets, or the ever-rising demands and expectations of patients. Anxiousness, frustration, irritation, interpersonal difficulties and stressors of many kinds are all too common. However, there are tools and techniques that can assist people in addressing these issues such that they are less affected by such stressors, more able to ‘observe rather than absorb’ (SB) what is going on around them. 

It is  esoterically true to say that what we do to another we do to ourselves and what we do to others, we do to ourselves. Thus the more judgmental and critical we are of ourselves, the more we will do that to others. Likewise, the more self-caring and nurturing we are to ourselves, the more we will be caring and nurturing towards others. Hence, improving staff health and wellbeing also means empowering people to understand and know what it means to be truly self-caring and nurturing so that they do not harm the body by indulging in excessive exercise or other activities that may at first glance be considered beneficial but which are in fact harming when understood energetically. 

Thus when it comes to healthcare, it is imperative that staff tend to their own health, healing and wellbeing in addition to tending to the health of their patients. We need to walk the talk and not just talk the talk if there is to be true integrity in the advice we give. For example there is no true integrity if we advise patients to eat healthy, lose weight and give up drinking /smoking if we are obese, eating junk food, smoking and drinking ourselves! For many years I did just that and thus I can say quite clearly from personal experience that giving health advice whilst making choices that are contra to that, may have the right words but has no true energetic integrity and thus limited ability to truly heal and in fact can be energetically harming. However, I also know that it is possible to truly heal from making such self-destructive and abusive choices and to be empowered to live in a way that is more centred, less emotional and more harmonious and loving for the body. By making simple choices like going to bed early and getting a good night’s sleep I can be well rested and more vital for the day at work and whatever it may bring. In doing so, I am more present, more focused with whatever task is at hand than if I am tired or exhausted. Furthermore, this does not just impact my own health and wellbeing, but all those I come in contact with whereby my way of being and living is energetically presented in full without me having to say a single word.  

Of course these understandings do not just apply to healthcare staff and patients but to all types and areas of work where people are involved. Feel free to comment or share experiences eg have you noticed how your way of being impacts others? Have you made any changes in your own health and wellbeing that has also impacted others?