CDC releases guide to minimize healthcare worker burnout

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As part of the first federal campaign to address healthcare worker burnout, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has released an evidence-based guide for hospital leaders to improve healthcare-worker wellbeing: Impact Wellbeing Guide: Taking Action to Improve Healthcare Worker Wellbeing. 

The guide is the newest addition to the Impact Wellbeing Campaign, launched in October 2023, and provides a step-by-step process for hospitals to start making organizational-level changes that CDC expects will impact and improve the mental health of their employees.

NIOSH Director Dr. John Howard called the role of healthcare workers "vital" to society and said they need to feel supported.

"The guide includes six action steps to implement and accelerate professional wellbeing, which enables leaders to make systems-level changes and builds trust between leaders and healthcare workers," he said.

WHAT'S THE IMPACT?

As highlighted in a recent CDC Vital Signs, health workers face a mental health crisis, with the realities of the healthcare system driving many healthcare workers to burn out.

According to the CDC, they're at an increased risk for mental health challenges and choosing to leave the health workforce early. NIOSH and the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes' Foundation developed the guide to help executive-level hospital leaders make powerful workplace improvements quickly, while taking into account the realities that many hospital systems face when it comes to finding additional time, funds and staff to implement the work.

The Guide outlines six key steps for hospital leaders to take, which were pilot-tested and refined with a working group comprised of six U.S. hospitals.

The steps are:

• Conduct a review of the hospital's operations to determine how they support professional wellbeing.
• Build a dedicated team to support professional wellbeing.
• Remove barriers to seeking care, such as intrusive mental health questions on credentialing applications.
• Develop a suite of communication tools that share updates with the workforce about professional wellbeing improvement efforts.
• Integrate professional wellbeing measures into an ongoing quality improvement project.
• Create a 12-month plan to continue to move the hospital's professional wellbeing work forward.

CommonSpirit Health, one of the largest nonprofit health systems in the U.S., supported NIOSH in pilot-testing the Impact Wellbeing Guide in six hospitals from July through December 2023: CHI St. Vincent Infirmary, CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs, CHI Saint Joseph Hospital, CHI Health-Creighton University Medical Center-Bergan Mercy, CHI Health Mercy Council Bluffs and CHI Health Lakeside.

THE LARGER TREND

An August 2023 American Medical Association survey found that 62% of emergency medicine physicians report feelings of burnout, ranking it as the top specialty affected by burnout.

Rounding out the top six most burned-out specialties are hospital medicine (59%), family medicine (58%), pediatrics (55%), obstetrics and gynecology (54%), and internal medicine (52%).

Meanwhile, just 52% of pediatrician respondents reported feeling valued by their organization. The other top five specialties all fell below 50% on that metric. Only 40% of ob-gyns said they felt valued.

On the nursing front, a March 2023 nurse.org survey showed 62% of respondents are concerned about the future of nursing. The numbers are an improvement from 2021, but nurses are still reporting high levels of burnout, mental health issues and lack of support, among other hardships. About 39% of them said they were dissatisfied with their current job, though this answer varied based on education level and specialty.

Jeff Lagasse is editor of Healthcare Finance News.
Email: jlagasse@himss.org
Healthcare Finance News is a HIMSS Media publication.