It was during the COVID-19 pandemic — when burnout was hitting the health-care system the hardest — that Sarah Forgie started thinking about joy at work.
The former University of Alberta vice-provost and chair of pediatrics, now dean of medicine at the University of Saskatchewan, wondered how she could help her colleagues at the U of A and the Stollery Children's Hospital.
"It's about helping each person find those moments where they are feeling joy that shifts the whole mood of their day and then has a downstream effect," Forgie says.
That downstream benefit includes less burnout, improved staff retention and better patient outcomes, according to Forgie and a U of A research team in a recently published scoping review of 25 studies from Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom.
'Joy is not a four-letter word'
"This is not rocket science, to be honest," says first author Marghalara Rashid, assistant professor of pediatrics. "It's things like increasing workplace flexibility, reducing administrative burden on physicians to foster better relationships with patients and colleagues — all of which will promote wellness."
"Joy is not a four-letter word," insists Forgie. "When I talk about it, I think where people go to is the extreme of toxic positivity, where you basically wash over everything and say everything's wonderful. That's not what we're about."
During the pandemic, Forgie worked with colleagues to set up formal conversations about joy at work with faculty and staff, and soon noticed that others were initiating the discussions. "It was like a virtuous circle. People were asking each other, 'What brings you joy? What stands in your way? When do you feel your most joyful?' This was making a difference."
