‘Motivational Monday’ on hold after DHB cops backlash
A health board that was roasted for encouraging people to work through fatigue has stopped its ‘‘motivational Monday’’ social media posts.
In November, the Midcentral District Health Board came under scrutiny for a Twitter post that endorsed working when tired. ‘‘Don’t stop when you’re tired. Stop when you are done,’’ was the last motivational Monday message posted before Midcentral decided to put a ‘‘hold’’ on posting more.
Midcentral spokesman Dennis Geddis said this week that the health board was in the process of refreshing its social media pages. ‘‘Motivational Monday is one of the items we have put on hold while we look at what else we can introduce in the future.’’
Geddis did not comment further.
The post outraged Twitter users such as Joann Ransom, who said the post was irresponsible from an organisation in the health and safety sector. ‘‘How can staff worked to the point of exhaustion be expected to do the work they do? We don’t tolerate that with truck drivers or many other less critical roles.’’
Twitter user Ninya Maubach said she was alarmed by the post. Maubach moved from Palmerston North to study medicine in Australia, but she follows Midcentral on Twitter in case she comes back to Manawatu¯ .
‘‘A tweet like this alarms me because it suggests that hospital management has not been following the discussion developing over the past few years about protecting clinicians’ wellbeing.’’
For staff to offer patients a high standard of care, they needed to take care of themselves first, Maubach said.
Midcentral apologised and deleted the message about 24 hours after it was posted. Midcentral chief executive Kathryn Cook said the health board genuinely regretted posting the motivational Monday tweet.
Other tweets in the longrunning series implored people to be kind to unkind people and advised ‘‘fall seven times – get up eight’’. One timed to coincide with the school holidays said: ‘‘Chill! (It’s only) chaos’’.
Midcentral would not say if or when the posts would return.