July 2023 Spotlight

The Office of the Chief Wellness Officer is proud to recognize Buckeye Wellness Innovators (BWIs) who actively create a workplace culture and environment of health and well-being. Congratulations to Brooke Brofford from the Department of Dermatology for being the July Buckeye Wellness Innovator spotlight.

Brooke has a true passion for wellness in her role as BWI and Faculty Affairs Coordinator within the medical center! Read below how she enriches the culture of health and wellness in her department. 

Q: Why did you join the Buckeye Wellness Innovator program?

The Department of Dermatology didn’t have a BWI, and I felt it was a role I could fill. I was and still am excited to share the wellness opportunities that OSU offers across our department.

Q: Why is being a Buckeye Wellness Innovator important to you? 

I think it’s important for us all to be responsible for our health and wellness. There are tools for being well that I think it’s important we know about them and how to use them.

Q: Share a few ways you are embracing the ten dimensions of wellness and providing opportunities for faculty/staff to engage in activities.

I am embracing the ten dimensions of wellness by first learning them myself. I had no idea about them until I became a BWI. Once I delve into a dimension, I try to highlight it in one of our Derm Digest newsletters. I developed these newsletters in our department to highlight wellness, faculty, staff and accomplishments. Having five different locations is hard, and the newsletter connects us.

Q: With so many competing priorities while at work, finding time to plan wellness activities for faculty/staff can be difficult. How do you find time to prioritize wellness and develop new or innovative ideas for wellness activities?

Honestly, my biggest challenge is making sure any activity I come up with can be implemented at all 5 of our locations. I want our wellness efforts to be equitable across all locations. I try to come up with activities that can be done electronically, or I beg our site managers to help me out (and they do)!

Q: How have you overcome barriers to engaging colleagues in your wellness efforts during the workday? 

I am still working on this. As I said before, I am trying to come up with some electronic options to engage our staff across all 5 locations. I ask our faculty and staff for their input in the newsletter (The Derm Digest). I am trying to highlight wellness by celebrating the accomplishments and milestones of our department.

Q: Has your leadership embraced wellness and/or your role as a BWI?

Yes, I feel our leadership has embraced the BWI role. They actually just approved a second BWI for our department.

Q: Why is it important for leaders to embrace and model wellness behavior and your role as a BWI?

Comradery and connectivity in the workplace are more important now than ever. We need to invest in a culture of wellness, starting with our leadership, to have happier and healthier employees.

Q: How do your leaders model wellness behavior?

I believe our leaders model wellness by providing us with goals and confidence. We just celebrated one year as our department, and it took all of us to get here. Fortunately, our leadership provided us with the goals and the confidence we needed to obtain those goals. This helps with our overall wellness as a department.

Q: What benefits have you seen or experienced, personally or professionally, as a result of the program?

I get lots of positive feedback about every newsletter I send out. The little personal bits of information I add about the staff, faculty or our residents serve as a conversation starter with someone. Those conversations enhance our well-being in the workplace.

Q: What would your dream be if you could accomplish anything as a Buckeye Wellness Innovator team?

I would love to see some type of wellness onboarding when we hire someone. I think many opportunities and programs fall through the cracks because starting a new job with new benefits and co-workers is overwhelming.

Q: What advice would you pass on to other Buckeye Wellness Innovators to help them create a culture of wellness in their department?

Some events or ideas maybe be a huge success, while others may fail horribly. The important thing is to keep on trying to get the message of wellness out there for everyone to hear.