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Professional Wellbeing						Print
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										Impact Wellbeing. Prioritizing Professional Wellbeing in Your HospitalPhoto by ©Maskot/Getty Images
You care about your workforce and your hospital, but it can be hard to know where to focus for the biggest impact to improve professional wellbeing. Individual resources for healthcare workers offer a strong starting point in providing support, but addressing workplace policies and practices is the best way to reduce burnout and strengthen professional wellbeing.1 Whether you need to fine-tune quality improvements, establish new workflows, or help staff feel safe getting support, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s (NIOSH) *Impact Wellbeing*TM campaign has the resources to help hospital leaders build a system where healthcare workers thrive.Why Focus on Professional Wellbeing?Staff with Shield icon
According to the National Academy of Medicine, between **35% and 45% of nurses and physicians and 40% to 60%** **of medical students** and **residents** report symptoms of burnout. 1Staff with Shield icon
Healthcare worker **burnout may impact the quality and safety of patient care**, including increased medical errors and hospital-acquired infections among patients. 2, 3, 4, 5Burnout doesn’t discriminate—it exists across departments and job titles. Research has shown that employers can support employee wellbeing by adjusting workplace policies and procedures. Examples include providing adequate paid leave, increasing autonomy and flexibility over job tasks, improving the work environment, and more. 6 Addressing working conditions also helps to address costs associated with staff turnover and optimize patient outcomes. 1
By identifying and implementing practical operational adjustments, you can improve retention and help healthcare workers continue doing what they do best—delivering the highest quality patient care. 7 Here are some tips and resources you can use to make professional wellbeing a core part of your workplace.Model Professional Wellbeing Practices for Your Workforce
Improved professional wellbeing starts with leaders committing to and modeling positive workplace culture practices. Research shows that supportive leadership can be an important factor in reducing the negative effects of job stress. 8, 9 It is critical to collaborate with your workforce when promoting a positive workplace culture. 10 Give workers more flexibility and control over their working conditions and schedules whenever possible. Ask employees how their working conditions and schedules can better support their safety, health, and wellbeing.
How hospital leaders run their departments directly impacts their abilities to have a strong workplace culture, cultivate an engaged workforce, and deliver high-quality patient care. Here are **four ways** you can model professional wellbeing in your hospital:Hand with Heart**Implement supportive supervision**. Train front-line supervisors in supportive supervision so they can help their staff balance their work responsibilities. Workers struggling to balance their work and home responsibilities experience increased stress. 11Battery Icon**Model taking time off.**Build in time for staff to use paid time off, sick leave, family leave, and rest breaks. Train and encourage managers and supervisors to role-model using these opportunities themselves. 12Conversation Icon**Normalize conversations about seeking mental health services.**Nine out of 10 employees appreciate when their leaders share stories of getting support. 13 Your staff wants to hear from you. Encouraging staff to get help if they need it sends a powerful message that will help them feel safe. Also, encourage senior leaders to talk publicly about getting help for their own mental health concerns and encourage staff to do the same. For tips on how to have conversations on mental health, see the Health Action Alliance’s leadership storytelling guide and conversation guide for managers.Icon**Promote a culture of safety within your organization.** Building a culture of trust with your workforce is an essential first step to addressing violence and harassment. Strategies from the Workplace Change Collaborative can help you make safety a core value at your workplace.Ensure a Safe Work Environment
Even before the pandemic, healthcare workers faced increasing cases of workplace violence and harassment.2 You can help make sure that healthcare workers feel safe at work by ensuring their wellbeing is valued as much as patient satisfaction. Here are some steps you can take to prioritize a safe work environment:
**Remove barriers to reporting incidents of violence and harassment.** Your hospital’s reporting procedures should empower healthcare workers to come forward without fear of retaliation when incidents of violence occur. Make the process simple and transparent and ensure your workforce knows that leadership takes incidents seriously and will act upon them in a timely manner.14
**Provide violence prevention training to employees.** Train supervisors and employees on how to respond when witnessing harassment, discrimination, bullying, or violence in the workplace. NIOSH’s free online course, **Workplace Violence Prevention for Nurses**, offers continuing education credits. The American Hospital Association recommends bystander training and cognitive rehearsal training in its **suicide prevention toolkit**.
**Support your workforce after upsetting events.** Ensure that worker safety and wellbeing are valued as much as patient satisfaction in these conversations. The American Hospital Association developed a **framework for providing trauma support** to healthcare workers following an incident or threat of violence.
**Ensure adequate staffing.** Adequate staffing can improve both worker and patient safety.2 Explore **resources from the Workplace Change Collaborative** for guidance on safe and appropriate staffing, optimizing teams, and reducing administrative burdens.Success Story: How Trinity Health Implemented a Successful Violence Prevention Initiative.Trinity Health’s Workplace Violence Prevention Strategy prevents violence and harassment through screening, real-time response, training, and data tracking. By investing in workforce safety, they reduced lost days and costs associated with workplace violence injuries.Learn more about their approach.Show Your Commitment Through Action
Although some causes of burnout can take more time to address, there are achievable steps you can take to champion a healthy workforce and hospital system now. To get started, here are **two actions** to improve professional wellbeing in your hospital:
Administer the NIOSH Worker Well-Being Questionnaire (WellBQ) to understand how your workforce is doing and identify ways to improve healthcare worker wellbeing at your hospital.
Access and use existing tools from leading experts in the field of healthcare worker mental health, such as:Healthcare workers fear losing their credentials because of overly broad and invasive mental health questions that are stigmatizing and discriminatory. 14, 15, 16
Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation Toolkit, which can help hospital leaders remove intrusive mental health questions from their credentialing applications and make it safe for staff to seek the mental health care they might need.
NIOSH’s Fundamentals of *Total Worker Health*®*, which can help hospital leaders improve the safety, health, and wellbeing of their workforce by developing new *Total Work Health* (TWH) initiatives or better align existing workplace interventions with the TWH approach.Healthcare WorkerPhoto by ©shapecharge/Getty Images
Become a **Wellbeing First Champion for Credentialing**, sponsored by ALL IN: Wellbeing First for Healthcare. ALL IN: Wellbeing First for Healthcare, an independent coalition of healthcare organizations led by the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation, recognizes hospitals for taking three simple steps to remove intrusive mental health questions from credentialing applications. Learn more about how to reduce stigmatizing language in your credentialing questions.Communicate Often With Your Staff
Clear, consistent, and open communication with staff is an essential part of professional wellbeing. Maintaining transparent, ongoing communication with your workforce builds trust and ensures that your commitment to professional wellbeing is communicated to your workforce. 18
Additionally, establishing channels for two-way communication between hospital leadership and healthcare workers (such as open Q&A sessions during department meetings) allows staff to provide input and ask questions about system-changes to improve professional wellbeing and demonstrates that you value your staff’s input.Handshake superimposed over a healthcare cross*Impact Wellbeing* was developed by NIOSH in collaboration with the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation to support hospital leaders, and in turn their healthcare workforce, to improve professional wellbeing.*Total Worker Health*® is a registered trademark of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).References1 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine [2019]. Taking action against clinician burnout: A systems approach to professional well-being. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
2 U.S. Surgeon General [2022]. Addressing health worker burnout: The U.S. Surgeon General’s advisory on building a thriving health workforce. Washington, DC: Office of the Surgeon General.
3 Trockel M, Menon N, Rowe S [2020]. Assessment of physician sleep and wellness, burnout, and clinically significant medical errors. AMA Netw Open 3(12):e2028111.
4 Salyers MP, Bonfils KA, Luther L [2017]. The relationship between professional burnout and quality and safety in healthcare: A meta-analysis. J Gen Intern Med 32:475–482.
5 Garcia CdL, Abreu LCd, Ramos JLS, Castro CFDd, Smiderle FRN, Santos JAd, Bezerra IMP [2019]. Influence of burnout on patient safety: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Medicina 55(9):553.
6 Adams JM [2019]. The value of worker well-being. Public Health Reports 134(6):583-586.
7 National Academy of Medicine [2022]. National plan for health workforce well-being. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
8 Allen TD [2001]. Family-supportive work environments: The role of organizational perceptions. J Vocat Behav 58(3):414–435.
9 Hammer LB, Kossek EE, Yragui NL, Bodner, TE, Hanson, GC [2009]. Development and validation of a multidimensional measure of family supportive supervisor behaviors (FSSB). J Manage 35(4):837–856.
10 Flin R, Fletcher G, McGeorge P, Sutherland A, Patey R [2003]. Anaesthetists’ attitudes to teamwork and safety. Anaesthesia 58(3):233–242.
11 Kossek EE, Hammer LB, Kelly EL, Moen P [2014]. Designing work, family & health organizational change initiatives. Organ Dyn 43(1): 53.
12 Kirby EL, Krone KJ [2002]. “The policy exists but you can’t really use it”: Communication and the structuration of work-family policies. J Appl Commun Res 30(1):50–77.
13 Health Action Alliance [n.d.]. Workplace mental health: Tips for sharing your story. Los Angeles, CA: Health Action Alliance.
14NIOSH [2020]. Workplace violence prevention for nurses: Prevention strategies for organizations. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
15American Hospital Association [2022]. Suicide prevention. Washington, DC: American Hospital Association.
16Weston MJ, Nordberg A [2022]. Stigma: A barrier in supporting nurse well-being during the pandemic. Nurse Lead 20(2):174-178.
17 Jones J, North C, Vogel-Scibilia S, Myers M, Owen R [2018]. Medical licensure questions about mental illness and compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 46(4):458-471.
18 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [2018]. Health communication playbook: Resources to help you create effective materials. Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Share your feedback
							
					
							Last Reviewed:  October 12, 2023						Source: 	National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
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