Thriving Project

The Thriving Project supports and enhances the wellness of rural healthcare practitioners, including doctors, residents, nurse practitioners, and midwives, throughout British Columbia. By fostering connections and building a community of practice, we provide these professionals with opportunities for learning, support, solace, and inspiration. Medical culture often suffers from a lack of creativity and a lack of empathy, leading to feelings of inadequacy, insufficient time, and burnout. The bureaucratic demands of medical practice can disconnect us from our patients and prevent us from providing the highest level of care. The Thriving Project strives to re-engage healthcare practitioners with their patients and to promote the value of their work by providing them with the tools and resources they need to succeed.

Achievements

Launched the “Providers Thriving Together” wellness conversation series

The Thriving Project launched the “Providers Thriving Together” wellness conversation Series, which consists of free monthly virtual drop-in sessions. These sessions provide a facilitated space for rural healthcare providers to experience camaraderie and peer support, activating their collective resilience. Each session features presenters, who are usually rural peers from around the province, sharing practices, frameworks, or ideas they’ve found useful. The sessions prioritize time for exploring these themes in both small and large group conversations.

So far this year, three sessions have been held, with topics ranging from informal peer support to the Two-Loop Model for system change in healthcare. Attendees have praised the sessions, with over 75 rural providers currently registered and even volunteering to present at upcoming sessions. The program’s success demonstrates the value of fostering connections and building a community of practice among rural healthcare providers in British Columbia.

Ran the Compassion Cultivation Training virtual program

Hosted by Dr. Shireen Mansouri, a certified compassion cultivator and rural physician, this 16-hour program ran virtually over 8 weeks in September 2022 and was adapted specifically for health care professionals. Participants explored how compassion can be cultivated and strengthened to help providers thrive personally and professionally. They delved into topics like compassion fatigue, moral injury and how medical culture can block compassion for themselves and others and learned how to regulate their sympathetic system.

RCCbc and the Thriving Project promoted the event through their network and social media, with 12 participants ultimately taking part. Participants learned skills such as steadying and calming the mind, showing compassion for loved ones and themselves, and developing compassion and appreciation for others.

Created a communications strategy and workplan

The Thriving team closely with RCCbc’s communications team to create a website that reflects the values and goals of the program. This website will serve as a hub for new programming information, including the newly launched wellness-themed column “Notes on Thriving” in the monthly RCCbc newsletter.

Explore the Numbers

3 Conversation series

Free monthly virtual drop-in sessions provided a facilitated space for rural healthcare providers to experience camaraderie and peer support, activating their collective resilience.

75 Rural providers

Registered for the “Providers Thriving Together” Wellness Conversation Series.

12 Participants

Explored how compassion can be cultivated and strengthened to help providers thrive personally and professionally through the Compassion Cultivation Training virtual program.

Plans for the Future

Looking to the future, the Thriving project is exploring the potential to host new training and workshops for healthcare providers. Tentative plans include a Compassion Cultivation Course for Physicians and an Online Reflective Writing Workshop for Physicians, both aimed at supporting healthcare practitioners in their personal and professional development. In addition, the project is considering an in-person wellness-themed gathering for rural practitioners, which would provide an opportunity for healthcare providers to connect with one another and draw upon the support, solace, and inspiration of their community of practice. To continue the ongoing support of the project, the monthly Providers Thriving Together sessions will continue to be available for rural healthcare practitioners to connect and share experiences.