Rethinking Wellness in Health Care Amid Rising COVID-19–Associated Emotional Distress
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic offers health care organizations and state agencies a rare opportunity to rethink their approaches to the well-being of health care professionals—including reexamining long-standing systemic organizational practices, as well as modernizing archaic state policies that contribute to a culture of suffering in silence. In health care, the topic of wellness is still often regarded as something soft and unnecessary or, worse yet, considered a sign of personal weakness. In recent years, we have seen a growing recognition of the need to promote wellness, but these efforts are still frequently relegated to the periphery in key organizational decisions and discussions. Wellness is often a footnote at the end of an agenda or a mascot on the sidelines.