Day 2 | Session 5: Physician wellbeing

Why healthcare kaimahi wellbeing matters

To provide safe, high quality, productive and compassionate healthcare - our healthcare workforce need to have a high level of wellbeing.  This session will describe what that might look like and how we might achieve this in a system that feels overwhelmed and under-resourced.


Dr Lucille Wilkinson
General & Obstetric Physician and Associate Chief Medical Officer
Te Whatu Ora Te Tai Tokerau

Lucille Wilkinson is a General and Obstetric Physician in Te Tai Tokerau (Northland).  She is Associate Chief Medical Officer and interim Clinical Lead for Kaimahi (Staff) Wellbeing for Te Whatu Ora.  Lucille has completed a Masters in Health Leadership at Auckland University with a focus on presenting the business case for investing in the wellbeing of doctors.  She is currently working to promote the adoption of widespread and consistent wellbeing programmes across Te Whatu Ora so that our staff can thrive in their work.  Lucille is a keen reader, learner and ocean swimmer.

Surgery: a pain in the neck?

Some tips for avoiding physical discomfort in the operating theatre and improving performance in the process. How to make the job work for you.


Dr Jessica Dunning
Fellow - Laparoscopic Gynae Surgery, Auckland

I started my RANZCOG training in the Auckland region (with a 6 month stint in Rotorua) then obtained FRANZCOG whilst working in the NHS Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital. I came back to New Zealand for a short term as the Chief Resident at Auckland City hospital before having my third child. I am now into my second year as an AGES AATP trainee in Auckland, specialising in minimal access surgery, pelvic pain and endometriosis management. Outside of medicine I love to be in the outdoors with my husband and three kids.

Intelligent kindness in healthcare

We all know what kindness in healthcare is. Or do we? How do we define it? Are we always as kind as we aspire to be in our healthcare roles? What gets in the way? 


Nicki Macklin
PhD candidate, University of Auckland, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences

Nicki Macklin is a PhD candidate at the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, exploring kindness in healthcare – specifically how healthcare workers define and conceptualise kindness within healthcare systems. Her research approach is strongly participatory action and community-based. Her interest and passion in this area of kindness has been motivated by her family’s extensive experience in navigating the healthcare system as parents of a child with complex medical needs. She is also a trained occupational therapist, a fellow of the Patient Revolution Foundation, and is the consumer representative for a national mortality review committee.