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Heather Farley, M.D., MHCDS, FACEP
Chief Wellness Officer
Expertise & Research Interests
- Change Management
- Wellbeing at Work
- Culture of Wellbeing
- Flourishing
- Burnout
- Healthcare Worker Stress
- Vicarious Trauma
- Professional Fulfillment
Education
- MD, Medicine, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey
- M.S., Health Care Delivery Science, Dartmouth College
Heather Farley, M.D., MHCDS, FACEP
Chief Wellness Officer
Dr. Heather Farley, an emergency physician by training, is one of the nation's foremost experts on healthcare worker wellbeing.
Dr. Farley has personally experienced the trauma that impacts caregivers when a patient suffers an unexpected adverse event and the transformative power of supportive, evidence-based initiatives. She is passionate about advancing the professional fulfillment and wellbeing of health care providers so they can flourish at work and at home. Studies show that investing in employee wellbeing is a wise choice for health systems for a multitude of moral, ethical, and financial reasons.
Dr. Farley leads advocacy programs and interventions aimed at optimizing the caregiver experience and fostering an organizational culture of wellbeing. Her mission is to restore joy and meaning in work for health care providers across the nation.
On Sunday, May 17, 2020, Dr. Farley and the Center for WorkLife Wellbeing were highlighted in The New York Times as a model of how to provide support for healthcare workers in times of extreme stress.
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Experience
'I Can't Turn My Brain Off': PTSD and Burnout Threaten Medical Workers
In full protective gear, she dimmed the lights and put on quiet music. She freshened his pillows, dabbed his lips with moistened swabs, held his hand, spoke softly to him. He wasn’t even her patient, but everyone else was slammed.
Finally, she held an iPad close to him, so he could see the face and hear the voice of a grief-stricken relative Skyping from the hospital corridor.
After the man died, the nurse found a secluded hallway, and wept.
A few days later, she shared her anguish in a private Facebook message to Dr. Heather Farley, who directs a comprehensive staff-support program at ChristianaCare's Christiana Hospital in Newark, Del. “I’m not the kind of nurse that can act like I’m fine and that something sad didn’t just happen,” she wrote.
Women in health care suffer burnout disproportionately to men
Burnout in health care affects everyone -- from doctors to patients to family members. That's because when health care professionals are burned out, they make mistakes. Many quit
Achieving Greater Workforce Resiliency
At the same time, hospitals and health systems face the greatest financial threat in U.S. history as rising costs for treating COVID-19 patients collide with the impact of earlier shutdowns or slowdowns of many so-called “elective” procedures and services.
Medical workers struggle with PTSD due to COVID-19
6 ways a health system attacks stress during the COVID-19 crisis
Leaders at ChristianaCare—a large health system that includes two hospitals in Delaware and one in Maryland with more than 1,200 beds, which ranks in the top 25 nationally in both admissions and emergency department visits—performs daily rounding on all shifts with a heavy emphasis on the COVID-19 units and the emergency departments. These offer basic well-being needs, including food, drinks, lotion to help moisturize hands that get washed all day long, anti-fogging wipes, lip balm and ear protectors because people are wearing masks all the time that irritate their ears. All of these are nice touches, but the well-being work of the health system extends far beyond that.
Creating a Culture of Wellness in the Workplace
Be Well: Preventing Physician Suicide
Scott Becker Interviews Dr. Heather Farley, Chief Wellness Officer at Christiana Care Health System
Delaware need easier access to mental health care after COVID
Each day, he witnessed the overwhelming death and suffering caused by the disease. On top of that, he and his adult child, who was compelled unexpectedly to return home from college, were constantly fighting. Even worse, his marriage was crumbling.
This doctor knew he needed help with his mental health. But he refused to access those services, due to his valid unease over a potential lack of confidentiality, the stigma of mental illness and the risk that his medical licensure could be jeopardized.
At the time, a lack of clarity in the existing Delaware law could result in doctors being reported to the Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline simply for having a mental health diagnosis or seeking mental health care. The consequence of this law was that many doctors feared seeking the very care that could support them through challenges, help them heal, and allow them to continue their work of caring for our community.
ChristianaCare program provides ‘care for caregivers’
Seeking solutions for healthcare worker burnout
Staff at ChristianaCare say they need a lifeline - and they can’t wait.
The health system’s Chief Wellness Officer Dr. Heather Farley and Delaware Public Media’s Rebecca Baer discuss a “rescue plan” for those workers.
Delaware Public Media's Rebecca Baer
Ideas That Work: Make Regular Rounds With Goodies for Staff
Dr. Heather Farley, Physician Executive and Chief Wellness Officer at ChristianaCare & Professor of Emergency Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University
Creating a Culture of Well-being
The 2022 Healthcare Workforce Rescue Package – Heather Farley, MD, and Tina Shah, MD
I Quit
Chief among the recommendations is to put an executive leader in charge of implementing wellness programs. Indeed, “chief wellness officer” has become an in-demand job posting. Farley’s own appointment as CWO of ChristianaCare preceded the pandemic, and many initiatives she and her staff implemented—wellness resources, peer support and a mental health hotline, among other changes—proved effective when stress levels escalated.
'We are not going to "resilience" our way out': 4 chief wellness officers on combating burnout
When those running the center recognized the collective struggle the pandemic brought upon the health system, it adjusted, according to Heather Farley, MD, an emergency medicine physician and chief wellness officer at ChristianaCare.
ChristianaCare already had a heavily utilized peer support program. During the first month of the pandemic, it saw a threefold increase in requests for individual support and a tenfold increase in requests for group support, according to Dr. Farley.
Defending the Term “Burnout” : A Useful Tool in the Quest to Ease Clinician Suffering
Op-Ed: Stop Ignoring Our Parallel Pandemic — Biden's COVID-19 task force must take action to prevent clinician burnout
Supporting Well-Being Through the Implementation of Education and a Relaxing Retreat Space
The objective of this study was to determine whether an innovative program including psychoeducation grounded in positive psychology and awareness of cognitive biases, along with access to a dedicated relaxation environment, would lower burnout for nurses.
Assessment of Physician Sleep and Wellness, Burnout, and Clinically Significant Medical Errors
Responsibilities and Job Characteristics of Health Care Chief Wellness Officers in the United States
Success Story: The Chief Wellness Officer Journey at ChristianaCare
The Evolving Role of the Chief Wellness Officer in the Management of Crises by Health Care Systems: Lessons from the Covid-19 Pandemic
Organizational strategies to reduce physician burnout and improve professional fulfillment
- Collaborative for Healing and Renewal in Medicine (CHARM) -- Member
- American Medical Association -- Member
- National Academy of Medicine -- Member
- Institute for Healthcare Improvement -- Member
- American Association for Physician Leadership -- Member