UNews - sickness

Vigilance, vaccination encouraged to stem flu

trevor.kenney — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:02:14 +0000

If there ever was a doubt that H1N1 Infleunza would impact the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, that was cast aside when the Pronghorns women's hockey team was forced to postpone a Canada West hockey series at the end of October.

With a quarter of the team's roster unable to play because they were experiencing flu-like symptoms, the Pronghorns and ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Saskatchewan athletics programs made a joint decision to postpone the Oct. 30-31 series and reschedule it to January, 2010.

"I applaud the actions taken to protect the health of the sports teams involved,"
U of L Health Centre manager Lori Weber, RN, says. "As a reminder, all those involved in any sport should be taking extra vigilance with cleaning sports equipment, not sharing water bottles, mouth guards or other equipment and notifying their coach/team when they are ill."

While the Pronghorns likely could have played the series shorthanded, the decision to postpone was made as much to protect fellow teammates from becoming ill and stemming the spread of the flu.

"It was very important to postpone this series to ensure that our team members and our visitors were not further exposed to the flu-like symptoms that have been spreading through the community," says Pronghorns assistant coach Deb Marek. "We currently have six players and coach Chandy Kaip away ill, and their health and well-being is critical."

For Weber, the incidence of sickness served as an opportunity to remind the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ community to continue to be vigilant in practicing established protocols to ward off the flu.

"The team illness is unfortunate, but not a surprise considering that there are currently more than 300 students, staff and faculty listed as ill on the
U of L's flu registry – about three percent of the school's student and employee population," she says.

The registry's numbers have been picking up steam of late, moving from just over 70 registrants to more than 300 in a span of 10 days.

Weber continues to advise persons to take advantage of the free H1N1 vaccinations that are currently being offered by Alberta Health Services at various sites throughout southern Alberta. The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge is expected to have its own vaccine in short order and will begin administering shots when given the go ahead from Alberta Health Services.

"The fact that we have less than five per cent of our population ill is a testament to people paying heed to the warnings we have posted throughout campus," Weber says. "But with flu so prevalent in the community, it's impossible to keep it out of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ environment. Therefore we urge people to get vaccinated and continue to be diligent with hand washing and sanitizing to keep our levels as low as possible."

Rethinking stress

trevor.kenney — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:07:42 +0000

Stress. There's a good chance you are experiencing it in your life right now or know someone who is. It's a buzzword that's become so pervasive in our culture that we hardly give it a second thought.

However, U of L management professor Dr. Bob Boudreau's research is raising a new awareness of the topic by showing how stress can lead to severe burnout – a serious epidemic sweeping across the nation.

Through a recent survey, Boudreau found that an alarmingly high rate of four in 10 Canadians suffer from burnout, a long-term debilitating condition marked by emotional exhaustion, lack of accomplishment and depersonalization. In taking his research further, Boudreau discovered an even more startling find.

"We found that one out of two doctors experiences burnout," says Boudreau. "In all other occupations there is no evidence of differences in burnout rates – it doesn't matter whether you are a policeman, nurse, fireman, lawyer or farmer – the rates are more or less the same. But relative to other professions, physicians are by far the highest at risk."

We tend to think of doctors as healers, those we turn to in times of sickness. So it's a troubling realization to find that they may be the one group needing urgent care the most.

Boudreau attributes the high rate of physician burnout to many factors, not the least of which is the pressure that comes from being responsible for the well-being of hundreds of patients. Tie that to an overtaxed health-care system rife with shortages, plus the day-to-day pressures of running a busy practice, and it's the perfect prescription for professional exhaustion.

With plans to continue and expand his work on professional burnout, Boudreau hopes to better the working environments of not only physicians, but professionals across the board.

"Once we understand burnout, we will be in a better position to manage many of its related workplace issues such as increased job conflict, poor performance, absenteeism, lateness and poor health," says Boudreau.

"The strategy is to find cracks in each occupation we study and develop the tools people need to cope with their own professional situations. Hopefully, as we progress, we will create more positive work and life spaces."

Rethinking stress

trevor.kenney — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:33:44 +0000

Stress. There's a good chance you are experiencing it in your life right now or know someone who is. It's a buzzword that's become so pervasive in our culture that we hardly give it a second thought.

We tend to think of doctors as healers, those we turn to in times of sickness. So it's a troubling realization to find that they may be the one group needing urgent care the most.

With plans to continue and expand his work on professional burnout, Boudreau hopes to better the working environments of not only physicians, but professionals across the board.

UNews - sickness

Vigilance, vaccination encouraged to stem flu

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Rethinking stress

Related Topics

Rethinking stress

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