The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has released guidelines designed to help health care leaders improve their teams’ professional well-being.
The Impact Well-Being Guide, available at bit.ly/4e8UAw0, was developed with the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation.
The key recommendations include:
- Shifting the focus from promoting self-care and individual resilience to implementing operational-level improvements.
- Emphasizing two-way communication to foster transparency and ensure staff are actively involved in decision-making related to well-being initiatives.
The guide includes the following six steps for improving the professional well-being of health care workers and strengthening hospital dynamics:
- Review your hospital’s operations to understand better how your workplace supports people’s well-being.
- Build a professional well-being team to ensure leadership dedicates the time and resources to protecting, improving and sustaining employees’ professional well-being. Shared governance between management and employee representatives is crucial for building trust and ensuring staff voices are heard and included.
- Break down barriers to seeking help. Auditing and updating intrusive and stigmatizing questions on hospital credentialing applications can remove obstacles and demonstrate your practice’s commitment to supporting staff mental health.
- Share your commitment. Clear, consistent and open communication with staff fosters professional well-being. Engaging with your workforce builds buy-in, encourages staff feedback and helps prevent a disconnect between departments.
- Integrate professional well-being into quality improvement. Ensure your hospital’s ongoing quality-improvement projects include professional well-being measures. Any initiative must consider the impact on the workforce and acknowledge that health care workers are at the heart of the health care system.
- Develop a long-term professional well-being plan. It will help keep your team accountable, focused and attentive to employee needs.