There are many careers that one can take. For many of us working in the field of wellbeing is our chosen career path.
With over 160 services and upwards of 300 scheme administrators we understand why people choose a career in wellbeing.
What makes this career so special?
"You have saved my life!" - From my own experience starting in cardiac rehab this was a phrase that I often heard. I feel totally privileged to be in a position where someone has actually said that to me. This phrase outweighs many metrics that a service is set up to measure (weight, BMI, quit date etc.) as more pressure is placed on key performance metrics we feel that some services are losing sight of these fantastic qualitative statements.
The statements are now reserved for the annual report where commissioners often need some angle that resonates with council leaders and is more "sexy" than shampoo stats (89% of 16 thought their hair was more glossy).
From a service delivery perspective these statements can act as drivers for change and should always be recorded. Recording these statements isn't difficult but analysing them can be. How we group these statements can be very difficult. I know this from recently analysing the reasons for leaving a service early (link to blog post) and reasons for not participating (link to blog post).
That was until I came across a very useful feature in Excel - subtotals. So, if you have never used sub-totals before now might be the time.
Organise your comments into one single list (in one column) next create a number of themes. Review each comment and select the theme and record this in the second column. Once complete it is time to unleash the sub-total feature. This will group themes and provide a subtotal for how many times that theme appears in the second column column. From here is is easy to generate charts (I love doughnut) which displays how many times the theme has been recorded.
At report time placing your doughnut with a couple of the actual comments brings life to your data and adds value to your service.
These statements are quite often the very reason why someone chooses a career in wellbeing, so let's be proud, and celebrate doing the do.