Staff Development and Support and Volunteer Services
HEALTH AND WELL-BEING
Our dedication to our employees extends beyond the workday to ensure that our colleagues maintain a work-life balance and a physical and emotional well-being that contributes to personal success.
Through programs like Well Beyond, physical activity, nutrition, personal resilience, financial wellness, career advancement, and community connections are promoted and encouraged.
2019 Gold Level Impact Award for Workplace Health (AHA)
South County Health was recognized by the American Heart Association as the 2019 Gold Level Health Impact Award recipient for creating a culture of health in the workplace. The Workplace Health Achievement Index was created by the American Heart Association to evaluate the overall quality and comprehensiveness of workplace health programs.
STAFF SUPPORT
Schwartz Center Rounds
Schwartz Center Rounds is a program that provides a forum where healthcare workers can comfortably discuss issues they face in providing patient care. Open, non-judgmental discussion allows for healthy dialogue regarding unhealthy stressors, while offering resolutions that improve how challenging conditions are handled.
Among the topics addressed in Schwartz Center Rounds:
- Healthcare ethics: Accessing help for difficult decisions
- Compassion matters: The challenges of alcohol use treatment
- Care and self determination
- Pandemic perspective: Our COVID-19 Stories
Peer Support Team
Recognizing that healthcare workers are impacted by life or death conditions and traumatic interactions with patients and families, a Peer Support Team was established in 2018.
South County Health’s Peer Support Team is a multidisciplinary group of 12 care professionals who are trained and certified in Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM).
The team is available to healthcare workers (medical staff, clinical and non-clinical staff) to provide evidence-based, emotional support and resources after a traumatic or challenging event to reduce compassion fatigue and/or vicarious trauma.
Its goal is to foster wellness through coping skills, resiliency, and resources for those who are routinely exposed to emotional demands.
In its inception year, the Peer Support Team was called on for 30 interventions with staff in crisis; in 2019, the number of interventions grew to 52.
In 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Peer Support Team answered over 500 calls for intervention.
South County Health’s Peer Support Team is one of three active teams in Rhode Island and is being used as a model for other hospital systems.
Volunteer Services
Volunteers are the foundation of South County Health and they continue to serve our patients.
In FY2020, volunteers contributed 18,000 hours of dedicated service in a variety of capacities. Although the COVID-19 pandemic forced the suspension of the volunteer program for a time, we were fortunate to have 131 volunteers provide services that improved the patient experience and provided support for our staff.
Our volunteers provide a variety of services, including:
- Compassionate rounding program
- Patient escort
- Surgical caretaker
- Comfort cart
- Reiki volunteers
- Gift shop
