Putting wellbeing at the heart of healthcare: meet Isla Woidt

As Strate­gic Lead, Work­place Well­be­ing Part­ner­ships, Isla Woidt is help­ing make work­place well­be­ing and good work design a key pri­or­i­ty across the health system. 

Right now, she’s set­ting up con­sis­tent ways to mea­sure and track well­be­ing across SA Health and part­ner­ing with the Women’s and Children’s Hos­pi­tal on a research project to improve work expe­ri­ences and reduce burnout through co-design and work redesign. 

What drew you to work­ing at the CEIH and what keeps you motivated? 

I tru­ly believe that our work and work­ing envi­ron­ment have a huge impact on our health and well­be­ing. CEIH’s gen­uine com­mit­ment to putting peo­ple at the cen­tre of every­thing we do, as well as work­ing col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly to improve the sys­tem for South Aus­tralians real­ly aligns with my val­ues. What keeps me moti­vat­ed is the oppor­tu­ni­ty to influ­ence mean­ing­ful change, espe­cial­ly when well­be­ing becomes part of how we lead, design, and deliv­er health ser­vices. I’m incred­i­bly proud of the work CEIH does and grate­ful to work with such inspir­ing and coura­geous leadership. 

What’s one project or achieve­ment you’re proud of? 

Co-author­ing the CEIH Work­place Well­be­ing Organ­i­sa­tion­al Guide and Dis­cus­sion Paper in 2023. It’s a prac­ti­cal resource that helps health­care teams and organ­i­sa­tions embed well­be­ing into their cul­ture, oper­a­tions, and deci­sion-mak­ing. The guide has been used by mul­ti­ple teams across the SA Health sys­tem already and is now being used as the basis for an applied research project with the Women’s and Children’s Health Net­work (WCHN).

Part­ner­ing with WCHN to imple­ment the frame­work and mea­sure its impact on front­line clin­i­cians has been a priv­i­lege and amaz­ing oppor­tu­ni­ty to put the­o­ry into action. 

What’s one book, pod­cast, or resource that’s influ­enced your think­ing lately? 

I’ve been enjoy­ing This Work­ing Life pod­cast on my com­mute to work which cov­ers mod­ern and top­i­cal issues fac­ing Aus­tralian work­places. I also read The Let Them The­o­ry and Atom­ic Habits while I was on hol­i­days recent­ly which cer­tain­ly sparked some inter­est­ing con­ver­sa­tions in our house­hold around focus­ing on the things we can con­trol and let­ting go of the things we can’t!

If you could solve one prob­lem in your field (or the world), what would it be? 

Com­ing from a pub­lic health back­ground, I’ve always seen work as more than just a job, it’s a deter­mi­nant of health. When organ­i­sa­tions struc­ture work in ways that sup­port health (both phys­i­cal and men­tal), equi­ty, and con­nec­tion, they’re not just help­ing employ­ees, they’re build­ing health­i­er com­mu­ni­ties. In health­care, that also means health­i­er patients. 

If I could solve one prob­lem in my field, it would be remov­ing the idea that work­place well­be­ing being is a ​“nice-to-have”, instead of a strate­gic pri­or­i­ty. Even when demands are high and bud­gets are tight, lis­ten­ing to, and look­ing after our peo­ple, espe­cial­ly our front­line work­ers, should always come first. 

How do you recharge? What helps you main­tain your own wellbeing? 

I love run­ning and spend­ing time in nature, espe­cial­ly the coast. It helps me clear my busy mind. Ear­li­er this year, I took three months long ser­vice leave to explore WA and the NT with my hus­band and two young kids. That time away to recon­nect with nature, cul­ture and fam­i­ly was a great chance to recharge the bat­ter­ies and remind­ed me how impor­tant it is to make the most of every day we have on this planet.