NIOSH develops wellbeing guide to address health care worker burnout

Addressing workplace policies and practices is the best way to reduce burnout and support health care workers' wellbeing, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The CDC's National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recently developed the "Impact Wellbeing Guide: Taking Action to Improve Healthcare Worker Wellbeing" as a way to help hospital leaders improve and sustain health care worker wellbeing.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health's (NIOSH) Impact Wellbeing Guide helps health care employers make meaningful changes to improve professional wellbeing in their workplaces.

"NIOSH's Impact Wellbeing Guide provides action steps for identifying and addressing operational-level improvements needed to support long-lasting solutions and professional wellbeing for every member of the health care team," said Jen Brandt, PhD, director of member wellbeing and diversity initiatives at the AVMA.

The six evidence-based action steps are as follows:

• Conduct a review of the hospital's operations to determine how they support professional wellbeing.
• Build a dedicated team to support professional wellbeing.
• Break down barriers to seeking help, such as updating and removing intrusive mental health questions on credentialing applications and offering confidential mental health support options.
• Develop a suite of communication tools that share updates with employees about the hospital's journey to improve professional wellbeing.
• Integrate professional wellbeing measures into an existing quality improvement project.
• Create a 12-month plan to continue to move the professional wellbeing work forward.

The Impact Wellbeing Guide, released in March, was tested by hospital leaders from six hospitals across the U.S. and was informed by discussions with professional organizations, academic institutions, unions, and federal agencies.

Findings from the guide show that health care workers are already aware of burnout and its causes. They prefer to learn about the latest resources and wellbeing efforts through their places of work.

One key principle of the guide is using a systems approach that goes beyond self-care and individual resilience and instead focuses on operational-level improvements. The other principle is building trust by prioritizing two-way communication between employees and management. This creates transparency and engages staff in wellbeing efforts, the guide says.

"Traditional approaches for addressing workplace stress, burnout, and wellbeing have often focused on personal responsibility and individual level interventions e.g., practice better self-care, increase your resilience, take a yoga class," Brandt said. "Seldom do individual-level approaches address root causes to workplace wellbeing challenges," including adequate staffing, demanding work schedules, and excess administrative work.

Veterinarians (82%) experience similar levels of low to medium burnout as the general population (84%) but have higher levels of exhaustion-61% for veterinarians versus 32% of the general population, according to results from the 2023 Merck Animal Health Veterinarian Wellbeing Study IV, conducted by Brakke Consulting Inc., in collaboration with the AVMA.

Currently underway is the burnout intervention study-a clinical trial being conducted by Cornell University and funded by the AVMA and the Zoetis Foundation to help address the issue of burnout in the veterinary profession.

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