Dr. Beauchamp on Employee Wellness

Recently Dr. Beauchamp talked with The Whole U reporter Quinn Brown about the Department of Radiology’s Wellness initiative.  Here are Dr. Beauchamp’s Top 10 Wellness Tactics:

1. As chair, be a steward of hope. “To say, ‘Yeah, there are a lot of tough things. But we can do it, and we’ll do it together,’” Dr. Beauchamp said.
2. Peer support program. “If you’re feeling overwhelmed, you can reach out to someone and get support. My mom taught me as a kid that you have to ask people how their day went and care about the answer.”
3. No Faculty Left Behind mentorship program. “Every single assistant professor has a mentor.”
4. Leadership support and training program. “I start each meeting with, ‘How are you doing?’ and ‘Are you taking care of yourself?’
5. Fitness. “We have a Couch-to-5K program where we have our sitters learn to walk, our walkers to jog, and our joggers to run.”
6. Celebrate the faculty. “The first 10 minutes of our faculty meeting is recognizing all the great things people do. I ask all the people who are in leadership roles to write three hand-written letters to faculty, celebrating all the great things that they do.”
7. Mindfulness. “Stress reduction. Claudia Finkelstein has been such a leader for us on this.”
8. THE interview question. “When I interview my team, I say ‘How is the department better because you passed through?’ We all go to work or go to school and say, ‘Why’s it gotta be like that? That’s irritating!’ Instead of cursing the darkness, Gandhi said light a candle. If something frustrates you, bring it forward.”
9. Help make it an institutional priority. “Our three chairs presented this to our dean to make it a priority, and he embraced it.”
10. Practice what you preach. “Take care of yourself. Take time for family, take time for friends, take time for fitness.”

Read more about what UW Radiology is doing for employee wellness here.