Dear Colleagues,
On February 12, Dean Lori Popejoy at the Sinclair School of Nursing, Dean Kristofer Hagglund at the College of Health Sciences and I welcomed J. Bryan Sexton, PhD, to campus to deliver the second annual Three Deans’ Lecture Series keynote address. Dr. Sexton serves as the director of the Duke University Center for the Advancement of Well-being Science.
Dr. Sexton’s address, “Bite-Sized Well-Being During Uncertain Times: Evidence, Practice and Resources to Share,” demonstrated the mechanisms at work that cause burnout and looked at how evidence-based interventions counteract those mechanisms to result in well-being improvements.
In his presentation, Dr. Sexton argued that work-life integration is the best indicator for current and future well-being. Burnout is a reality in any workplace, but especially in the world of health care. Improving well-being and building strong morale is critical for any organization, as a negative burnout culture can lead to higher costs and increased employee turnover.
Dr. Sexton and the Duke Center for the Advancement of Well-being Science offer a bite-sized well-being toolkit, allowing any individual to access simple and effective ways to improve one’s well-being. Intervention data from bite-sized well-being practices has shown decreased emotional exhaustion in six months and continued decreased exhaustion over a one-year period.
I encourage everyone to view Dr. Sexton’s full presentation, including his 40-minute keynote address and 20-minute interactive Q&A session afterwards.
Dr. Sexton is a psychologist member of the Duke University Department of Psychiatry. He’s a psychometrician and spends time developing methods of assessing and improving safety culture, teamwork, leadership and work-force well-being. Dr. Sexton earned a Doctor of Philosophy in 2002 from the University of Texas at Austin.
Dean Popejoy, Dean Hagglund and I want to thank everyone who tuned in for Dr. Sexton’s presentation. Dr. Sexton arrived in town just before a heavy snow and ice storm. We moved his presentations to primarily virtual Zoom events and were able to proceed with the agenda unphased. One lesson we learned from COVID was how to quickly adapt to a virtual event!
Stay tuned for more details on next year’s speaker, and we look forward to seeing you there for another engaging presentation and discussion.
Sincerely,
Rick Barohn, MD
Executive Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs and Hugh E. and Sarah D. Stephenson Dean, School of Medicine
rbarohn@health.missouri.edu
