Self-managing individual wellness for the health professional: A somatology perspective
Abstract
Background: Health professionals play a vital role in the stability and sustainability of any healthcare system. However, the well-documented long working hours, lack of wellness support structures, regular occurrence of burnout and low retention rates are concerning.
Aim: The aim of this research study was to understand how a group of therapists self-manage their own individual wellness, to provide insight on how other health professionals, working in a demanding environment, could potentially address their individual wellness more effectively.
Setting: The research was conducted in a private room at the place of participant employment, in two metropolitans in Gauteng, South Africa.
Method: Qualitative, explorative, descriptive and contextual designs were used within the paradigm of constructivism. Purposive sampling was used to select participants. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, field notes and reflective practices, and analysed through open coding.
Results: This study revealed disequilibrium between the theoretical knowledge and practical realities of therapists, and indicated that these therapists experience various personal obstacles that hinder the self-management of their individual wellness.
Conclusions: Somatology therapists use various personal strategies that allow them to better self-manage their individual wellness. Individual wellness seems to be a personal phenomenon, indicating the need to self-reflect on personal perceptions of wellness, individual wellness obstacles and individual wellness strategies to effectively self-manage individual wellness.
Keywords: individual wellness; health professional; self-management; somatology; personal wellness; healthcare provider; demanding work environment; wellness.
The author(s) retain copyright on work published by AOSIS unless specified otherwise.
Licensing and publication rights
Author(s) of work published by AOSIS are required to grant AOSIS the unlimited rights to publish the definitive work in any format, language and medium, for any lawful purpose. AOSIS requires journal authors to publish their work in open access under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.
The authors retain the non-exclusive right to do anything they wish with the published article(s), provided attribution is given to the applicable journal with details of the original publication, as set out in the official citation of the article published in the journal. The retained right specifically includes the right to post the article on the authors’ or their institution’s websites or in institutional repositories.
Previously published work may have been published under a different licence. We advise the community that if they would like to reuse the work to consult the applicable licence at article level.
Note: If you need to comply with your funding body policy, you can apply for the CC BY license after your manuscript is accepted for publication.