Sanjoy Deb (Life Sciences), Anna Cheshire & Damien Ridge (Psychology)
Embedding evidence-based nutrition and physical activity guidance in the NHS to improve doctors’ health and wellness
Occupational stress on NHS health workers is ever increasing due to growing national healthcare demands and increased governmental pressures for saving efficiencies. Poor staff health costs the NHS £2.4 bn per annum from absenteeism; making staff wellness critical to the NHS agenda (NHS, 2018).
Amongst the key challenges is the burnout epidemic amongst doctors (Panagiotis et al. 2018) and work shift patterns that are associated with poor health and fatigue (Caruso, 2014). These together are strongly associated with reduced patient safety and inferior quality of care (Panagioti et al. 2018). Workplace health and wellness promotion initiatives are therefore, imperative for doctors to address the prevalence of burnout and improve health.
Here, a holistic emphasis on nutrition, physical activity (PA) and psychological wellbeing is crucial given that medicine has traditionally neglected this area (Bezner, 2015). Whilst the University of Westminster is leading the way in developing and implementing psychological strategies (Cheshire et al. 2017); this project will elucidate the role of PA and nutrition in improving doctors’ well-being. It will dovetail with a Quintin Hogg Trust (QHT) funded scholarship ensuring that the University of Westminster becomes a leading authority on doctors’ health and wellness. The PhD candidate will undertake action research using a mix-methods approach in order to design and evaluate the effect of a nutrition and PA interventions to improve the health and wellness of doctors.