The end of the year often can bring about stress and feeling overwhelmed at work and at home, and no one experiences that more than certain seasonal workers from the North Pole. Fortunately, Baylor’s Dr. Peggy Yang was available to provide some tips to prevent burnout this time of year, which can be applied all year long. Watch the video below to see her advice.
When not serving as the leader of the North Pole sELF-help group, Yang also has important roles at Baylor College of Medicine. An assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, Yang provides psychotherapy services as a psychologist to residents, fellows and partners through the Student and House Staff Mental Health Services.
She also is the director of the Office of Institutional Well-Being, a new role at the College to support Baylor’s strategic goal in the area of wellness to “Provide our faculty, staff and learners with a thriving environment that fosters resilience, engagement and advancement of Baylor’s mission and vision.”
Wellness priorities include addressing systemic issues that impact wellness and promoting individual and organizational resilience. Yang’s office will contribute to this by serving as a wellness hub through which existing wellness initiatives and programs are supported and new projects are developed.
To buoy this effort, the Well-Being Alliance will be developed, a group led by College executive leadership and consisting of a spectrum of individuals involved or interested in wellness to represent the needs and concerns of everyone at all levels at Baylor College of Medicine.
“We are very well aware that burnout rates in health science universities are high, and often may result from systemic issues,” Yang said. “The Well-Being Alliance will be charged with discovering who is impacted, how we are impacted, what is contributing to burnout and wellness issues and what we can do to add back to the water tank of collective organizational well-being.”
One tool for addressing wellness and burnout is the Well-Being Index. The index accurately measures and tracks six dimensions of distress and well-being with the validated nine-question assessment invented by Mayo Clinic.
Residents and fellows can complete the Well-Being Index, using the invitation code: BCM HOUSESTAFF. The index next will be rolled out to Baylor faculty – keep a watch out for more information in Baylor communications!
–By Dana Benson
BCM Family 