Investing in mental health resources, standardizing the use of technology, and supporting diverse recruitment efforts are among the recommendations of the National Academy of Medicine to support healthcare workers and address the growing burnout situation.
The National Plan for Health for the Health Force, released Wednesday, details the need for healthcare leaders, insurers, educators and government agencies. work together to reduce the administrative burden and stress that healthcare workers face on the job.
Thirty organizations have endorsed the plan, including the American Medical Association, the Joint Commission, and the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education.
Although most health care workers say they feel exhausted by COVID-19, the pandemic has exacerbated problems such as under-staffed and unmanageable patient numbers affecting the health at work.
The Department of Health and Human Services announced a $103 million grant this January for health systems to use in efforts to improve employee mental health. In May, Surgeon General Dr Vivek Murthy released a report calling on health systems and insurers to tackle the industry-wide mental health crisis, warning that the burnout will only increase over time.
According to a survey by the Association for Advanced Physician and Provider Recruitment, approximately 30% of advanced practice providers left their jobs in 2021 due to burnout. The survey shows revenue reaching 10% in 2021, the highest rate in six years.
To strengthen the healthcare workforce and reverse persistent burnout problems, the National Academy of Medicine report outlines seven priority areas, each with dozens of short-term actions and Long-term for health systems, insurance companies, information technology companies, academia and governments:
1. Create and maintain a positive working and learning environment
- Invest in a culture that supports quality patient care while encouraging occupational health
- Set reasonable productivity expectations
- Implement wellness programs for medical students to build resilience and coping skills
- Create a flexible staffing plan that allows for sick leave and reasonable time off
- Take experience surveys and exit interviews
2. Invest in measurement, assessment, strategy and research
- Collaborate across the industry to look at how factors such as payment models, IT, workloads, and regulatory practices contribute to burnout
- Measuring the impact of bias and COVID-19 on occupational distress
- Convene conferences to share unidentified data and best practices to improve worker welfare
3. Support mental health and reduce stigma
- Train and recruit mental health professionals to care for healthcare workers
- Increase resources and opportunities for debt relief for people who want to become mental health professionals
- Educate staff and the community at large about mental health resources
- Provide co-worker support programs and stress first aid training
4. Address compliance, regulatory, and policy barriers to day-to-day work
- Modify documentation requirements that do not contribute to quality patient care to reduce unnecessary administrative burden
- Use metrics to assess staff workload and set goals to reduce contact time with non-patients
- Develop integrated workplace policies to support face-to-face and virtual workflows
- Increased automation to standardize processes
- Reduce the number of authorizations before possible
5. Use technology tools effectively
- Explore ways to develop and implement information technologies that support healthcare workers in their care and do not impede clinical decision-making
- Create standards for clinically useful, accurate, interoperable, human-centered, and user-friendly technology
- Consider the benefits and limitations of using phone and video consultations to reduce clinician burnout
6. Institutionalizing happiness as a lasting value
- Plan to stockpile supplies of personal protective equipment and other resources to support public health and care systems in future emergencies
- Provides long-term funding for people experiencing physical and emotional stress from caring for COVID-19 patients
- Time-framed support regarding pre- and post-hospital assessment of patients, allowing the health system to recover and care for patients in a timely manner
- Form a national network to rapidly share, deploy, and test transition models from acute COVID-19 care
7. Recruit and retain a diverse and inclusive health workforce
- Provides targeted scholarships and debt relief opportunities for medical students and healthcare workers from underrepresented communities
- Build pipeline programs and partnerships with high schools, technical schools, and universities
- Ensure fair compensation throughout the company
- Increase the number of childcare opportunities, as well as time and pay for parental leave
- Reimbursement of healthcare workers to address social determinants of health
