Background Increasingly, compassion fatigue, staff welfare and ‘burnout’ of those working in end-of-life services is hitting the headlines. Whilst working in palliative care is rewarding it can often be challenging and impact on work life balance. Healthcare professionals in particular are considered to be at high-risk of compassion fatigue. The drive to support staff is increasingly important with high staff turnover, high sickness, poor morale and staff leaving the profession altogether. A Staff Wellbeing Strategy could negate these effects by improving overall wellbeing.

What are we doing As part of our strategy we have developed a free weekly programme of in house workshops called Wellness for You. Delivered by a senior complementary therapist the focus is on key elements of wellbeing; using different themes; informal interactive group discussions; practical demonstrations; attendees complete anonymised pre/post evaluations using a likert scale.

Objectives To develop a self- care resource for staff support; Improve health and energy; Improve satisfaction in the workplace; Reduce compassion fatigue

Results Early results from weekly evaluations have shown that the programme so far is proving to be a great success in creating an improved sense of wellbeing by reducing stress and improving morale – thus improving overall health in the long term.

Sustainability The workshops offer a rolling programme that can be used across all departments and in other settings. The programme has already shown benefits for staff in the work place even at this early stage. The focus is on supportive tools and strategies for self-care that all staff can benefit from. Developments of the programme may have human resource benefits i.e. reductions in staff turnover and absenteeism, higher morale and a better workplace to attract staff.