Women in healthcare get a website of their own

The need to find balance in her own life led Anna Garrett, PharmD, manager of Outpatient Clinical Pharmacy Programs at Mission Hospital in Asheville, N.C., to establish the National Association for Women in Health Care (NAWHC), an organization she founded earlier this year to help nurses, pharmacists, and other healthcare professionals take care of themselves. The organization focuses on mental, physical, and emotional support for female healthcare providers with monthly conference calls and articles posted at its website, http://www.nawhc.com/.

Women in healthcare tend not to take care of themselves and their needs, she said. "A lot of us just go through our days on autopilot and react to whatever emergency happens to be in front of us. I want to offer an opportunity to reconnect with and renew the women we are inside, so we become much better wives, mothers, volunteers, or whatever we are doing."

To help female healthcare providers, the NAWHC holds bimonthly teleseminars for its members featuring wellness and self-care experts. Topics include "Living your life on purpose," "Alternative medicine 101: A look at Eastern healing," "Simple strategies for stress reduction," and "Dialing down holiday madness." Members can also take part in a monthly conference call that enables them to share their life challenges and solutions.

Garrett said she is intent on getting the word out about the role of alternative medicine in self-care. "We have an integrative medicine department in our hospital, and a huge percentage of the population uses alternative medicine. I want to make sure that people know what the benefits are."