What is Wellbeing?

Dr Harjeev Rai, Medical Director of Hessington Health Limited, is proud to share here the fundamental components of his master’s research on wellbeing. With over 20 years of medical experience, having taught medical students at UCL and the University of Cambridge, he completed his Master’s in Medical Education at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge with a Distinction award in 2020.

The intent of this research was to explore how a conceptual understanding of wellbeing could support the wellbeing of medical students; from the findings, it was concluded that the evidence for wellbeing is transferable and can be contextualised to any environment. The following issues were flagged by this research:

  • No true definition for wellbeing exists that is all-encompassing, and evidence based.
  • Current wellbeing models lack transferability between contexts (for example, effective frameworks in education may not be transferable to other sectors).
  • There is no evidence-based wellbeing model that can help to map an individual’s wellbeing.

Having reviewed over 3000 articles and publications, the research pointed to three core domains:

  1. The cognitive domain (how we think and emotional maturity).
  2. The physical domain (how we behave and our physical health).
  3. The external domain (the external focus such as education, employment, or professional development).

Maintaining Wellbeing

From this review, three main drivers for maintaining wellbeing permeated the literature: autonomy, engagement, and interpersonal skills. Keeping this system in balance is key to maintaining one’s resilience. Based on the evidence, the following definition for wellbeing was proposed:

Wellbeing is an ecosystem underpinned by psychological, physical, and social components. Wellbeing is achieved when this tri-dimensional relationship is homeostatically balanced, creating a positive impact on mental and physical health which promotes motivation, self-regulation, and resilience.  (Rai, 2020).

The Wellbeing Tri-Hazard?

Consequently, a wellbeing model was conceptualised that could be used as a framework for exploring the wellbeing of an individual in a contextually transferable way, making it flexible and relevant to any setting.

The Wellbeing Tri-Hazard demonstrates the symbiotic relationship between the three core domains of wellbeing and the key drivers (autonomy, engagement, and interpersonal skills). When any of the components in the various domains become compromised, The Wellbeing Tri-Hazard is activated which flags concerns about an individual’s resilience.

Hessington Health Limited have partnered with The Xanda Foundation to create a webtool that maps this model, offering individuals a bespoke wellbeing report. The report will offer practical, evidence-based guidance, together with appropriate signposting where relevant. More information can be found here.

WebWellbeing.co.uk is a trading name of Hessington Health Limited. More information about our general medical services can be found on the Hessington Health website (www.hessingtonhealth.com).