Dimensions of wellness survey

Saturday, March 01, 2014 11:28 AM

Poll results to shape development of wellness toolkit

Kate Alfano, CMS contributing writer

In January 288 CMS members completed a survey focused on physician wellness across eight dimensions: emotional, environmental, financial, intellectual, occupational, physical, social and spiritual. A collaboration between the Colorado Medical Society and the University of Colorado’s Behavioral Health and Wellness Program (BHWP), the survey gathered information about CMS members’ perceptions of wellness.

The University’s Behavioral Health and Wellness Program will use the survey data to help shape the development of a physician wellness toolkit to be published later this year.

Survey participants were asked to rate their level of wellness on a scale of 1 (worst) to 10 (best). More than 66 percent of physicians surveyed rated their environmental, intellectual and spiritual wellness as “high,” with an average rating ranging from 7.9 (intellectual and spiritual) to 8.1 (environmental). In fact, more than half of all participants rate their wellness as “high” in all dimensions. Less than 10 percent of survey participants rate their current wellness as “low” in seven of the eight dimensions of wellness.

However, occupational wellness is rated as “low” by more than one in every 10 participants. Less than half of participants rated their occupational wellness as either “moderate” (38 percent) or “low” (11 percent). This demonstrates that CMS and BWHP must focus upcoming wellness activities on increasing occupational wellness as well as sustaining wellness across all of the other dimensions.

We encourage physicians to provide feedback on the CMS physician wellness initiative. Tools and articles are posted monthly on CMS.org. Go to www.cms.org/resources/category/physician-wellness to view these resources and submit comments. Members’ contributions support the goal of increasing overall physician wellness.