Tag: burnout

Categories : Mental HealthTags :

From Stress to Strength: The Impact of Mental Health Support in the Workplace

On By ModernMedia
Photo by Usman Yousaf on Unsplash

As the world continues to face unprecedented challenges, including geopolitical tensions, extreme weather events, disease outbreaks, and economic uncertainty, the mental health of employees has become a pressing concern. This year’s World Mental Health Day theme, “Mental Health at Work”, is a crucial reminder for organisations to take action to safeguard their workforce’s mental health and wellbeing. In alignment with this theme, International SOS, the world’s leading health and security risk services company, encourages organisations worldwide to recognise the critical importance of mental wellbeing and resilience within their workforce.

Heightened anxiety

The increasing frequency and intensity of global crises, coupled with elevated job demands, are contributing to heightened levels of stress and anxiety, further exacerbating mental health concerns among the global workforce. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), an estimated 15% of working-age adults are experiencing a mental disorder at any single point in time.

Additionally, International SOS assistance data(2022 – 2024) reveals that over the past two years, the top five mental health-related assistance requests the organisation received are:

  1. Anxiety
  2. Depression
  3. Panic disorder
  4. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
  5. Acute stress 

Burnout has also become a prominent issue among employees, with one in four employees worldwide reporting symptoms of burnout. The International SOS Risk Outlook 2024 report highlights employee burnout as a major threat impacting organisations.

Economic impact

Moreover, the economic impact of mental health issues cannot be ignored. The WHO estimates that globally, approximately 12 billion working days are lost annually to depression and anxiety, resulting in US$ 1 trillion in lost productivity per year. These figures highlight the importance for employers to create a workplace that promotes mental wellbeing and underscores the immense cost of neglecting employee mental health and wellbeing at work. Organisations play a pivotal role in shaping the mental health landscape by implementing policies and practices that promote wellbeing.

Dr Chris van Straten, Global Health Advisor Clinical Governance at International SOS said, “World Mental Health Day is a timely reminder for organisations to acknowledge and address the profound importance of mental wellbeing within their workforce. The workplace environment can have a significant impact on employee mental health, both positive and negative, by either fostering wellbeing or contributing to stress and anxiety. Just as we invest in employee physical safety, it is important to also understand that mental health is integral to overall health. It is therefore imperative to prioritise mental resilience.”

“Organisations can empower their employees to navigate challenges, thrive and contribute to a more positive and productive workplace by creating a supportive work environment that fosters open communication, empathy and understanding. Providing access to mental health professionals, counselling services, and employee assistance programmes is essential to ensure employees are equipped to navigate the complexities of today’s global landscape.”

To support the mental health and wellbeing of their workforce, International SOS provides advice for organisations:

  1. Cultivate a supportive work culture with strong leadership commitment: Create a workplace culture and environment that prioritises and promotes open communication on mental health. Ensure mental wellbeing initiatives are seamlessly integrated into relevant policies and practices to provide robust support.
  2. Provide accessible resources: Ensure employees have a toolkit of mental health resources at their fingertips, from counselling to self-guidance materials.
  3. Promote work-life balance: Offer flexible work arrangements and remote work options to help employees manage their personal and professional lives effectively. Encourage regular breaks and empower employees to prioritise their wellbeing.
  4. Training and education: Implement comprehensive mental health awareness campaigns to reduce stigma. Roll out mental health training, enabling everyone to spot, understand and assist with mental health challenges.
  5. Monitor and assess: Seek feedback and continuously monitor the mental health of employees through surveys and assessments, and adapt programmes as needed.
  6. Invest in emotional wellbeing: provide access to mindfulness sessions and stress management training—partner with certified mental health professionals to offer confidential counselling and support services.
  7. Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs): Provide EAPs that offer confidential counselling and support services to employees. Promoting the availability and benefits of EAPs can encourage employees to seek help without fear of stigma, fostering a culture of openness and support.
Categories : Mental HealthTags :

Online ‘FoMO’ can Cause Employees to Burn Out

On By ModernMedia
Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

Fear of missing out (FoMO) is a key risk factor for employee mental health and, along with information overload, may increase burnout, according to new research.

Researchers from the University of Nottingham’s Schools of Psychology and Medicine analysed survey data from 142 employees to investigate the ‘dark side’ of digital working and found that employees who are worried about missing out on information and are overloaded by it are more likely to suffer stress and burnout. The results have been published today in SAGE Open.

The digital workplace is now recognised as a key strategic asset in organisations that enables worker productivity and flexibility in context of hybrid working. However, the potential downsides in terms of worker well-being also need to be considered, especially given the proliferation of digital communication channels and tools since Covid.

Elizabeth Marsh, PhD student from the School of Psychology

This new study connects to previous work which revealed that employees who are more mindful in the digital workplace are better protected against stress, anxiety and overload.

In this research FoMO is defined as anxiety about missing out on both important information and updates, as well as opportunities for relationships and interactions. FoMO has long been a term used in relation to social media, and now this new research shows it is an effect that is being felt in the workplace.

The participants in the study were surveyed about their experiences of the dark side effects of the digital workplace which were identified as; stress, overload, anxiety and fear of missing out and how these affected their wellbeing.

The results showed that among the dark side effects, those relating to information – both feeling overloaded by it and fearing missing out on it – proved particularly detrimental for well-being both directly and by elevating overall stress related to digital working.

Elizabeth adds: “The glut of information flowing through channels such as email, intranets or collaboration tools can lead workers to worry about missing out on it as well as succumbing to overload as they strive to keep up. To help people cope with information overwhelm, serious and sustained attention should be given to both optimising information management and supporting information literacy.”

The research makes some practical suggestions for employers which include investing in practices to optimise the amount and flow of information to employees. The findings could also be used by HR departments to consider policy and training options that would support the end-users of the digital workplace to better access, manage and consume information in a way that is conducive to well-being as well as productivity.

Consideration of the digital workplace in work and job design is essential to not only employee productivity but also well-being in modern organisations. Where this is lacking, elevated stress and burnout as well as poorer mental health may result. Our findings indicate the information ecosystem as an important area for attention both inside organisations and among the research community.

Professor Alexa Spence, School of Psychology

Source: University of Nottingham

Categories : Mental HealthTags :

New Tool Predicts Burnout Risk

On By ModernMedia
Photo by Mulyadi on Unsplash

It is not uncommon for people to “hit the wall” at work and experience burnout for short or long periods of time.

“We have found that approximately 13 per cent of Norwegian employees are at high risk of burnout,” says Leon De Beer, Associate Professor of Work and Organizational Psychology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) Department of Psychology.

De Beer has contributed to a new study on burnout published in the Scandinavian Journal of Psychology with colleagues from the Healthy Workplaces research group.

They are working on a new tool that can identify people at risk of burnout. 

Signs that you might be at risk of burnout

If you are facing demands and stress at work that seem to be intractable, and you have frequently experienced the following symptoms in recent weeks, it might be a sign that you are on the verge of burning out:

  1. You feel mentally exhausted at work.
  2. You struggle to feel enthusiastic about your job.
  3. You have trouble concentrating when working.
  4. You sometimes overreact at work without meaning to.

Early intervention is key

It is important to identify the early signs of burnout in order to mitigate the harmful effects. The warning signs are often present before things have gone too far, as long as we manage to identify them.

“Not addressing the risk of employee burnout in time can have long-term consequences,” says De Beer.

The physical and psychological effects of burnout include cardiovascular disease, pain related to musculoskeletal injuries, sleeping problems, and depression. Organisations can also lose talented employees and experience an increase in sickness absence and lost productivity.

A new tool may become standard

De Beer’s research group has trialled a new measurement tool to identify the early warning signs of burnout. In the past, it has not always been that easy.

“Previously, we have not had a detailed enough measurement tool for use in both the field of practice and research that identifies workers who are at risk of burnout,” says De Beer.

There is currently no international standard for assessing burnout.

The new tool is called the Burnout Assessment Tool, or BAT among researchers who have a penchant for amusing abbreviations. The BAT consortium, of which the researchers are a part, is now testing the instrument in more than 30 countries.

https://burnoutassessmenttool.be/start_eng/

Start ENG

“Our studies show that BAT is a good tool for identifying the risk of burnout,” says De Beer.

Burnout is the body’s response to stress

BAT measures four main groups of risk factors: exhaustion, mental distancing, cognitive impairment and emotional impairment.

Burnout is not really an illness, but a feeling of being mentally or physically exhausted — the body’s response to a lasting, demanding situation.

Burnout is normally defined as a work-related syndrome, but there is evidence that work-life balance also plays a role. Stress and burnout don’t necessarily stop when you go home at the end of the day, as these effects often extend into other areas of life and vice versa.

Some may experience years of burnout

For some people, burnout can be stopped in its tracks and solutions found to improve their situation. For others, however, burnout can last for years if the problem isn’t addressed.

“We can deal with burnout through individual treatment, but it is of little use if people return to a workplace where the demands are too high and there are few resources. It is then highly likely that the employee will become ill again. Therefore, it is important to create good working conditions and structures that safeguard the health of employees,” says Professor Marit Christensen at NTNU’s Department of Psychology.

Culturally independent

The researchers studied a representative sample of 500 Norwegian workers. Norway is roughly on par with the EU average when it comes to mental health, but somewhat better when it comes to work-related matters.

A lower percentage of the Norwegian population struggles with exhaustion in connection with work. Somewhat fewer people than the EU average report health hazards at work, and we experience a better work-life balance.

“Using a recognised method, we found that around 13 per cent of the 500 surveyed workers were at high risk of burnout,” says Professor Christensen.

The tool can help identify who requires the most urgent follow up so that the risk of burnout can be reduced.

We do not yet know whether the prevalence of burnout in Norway is high in an international context. The Norwegian study is among several BAT studies that are currently taking place, so these answers will be available at a later date.

The tool is intended to be culturally independent, and it certainly works well in Norway. The researchers also found that the tool works regardless of gender.

“For entertainment and educational purposes, interested parties can use our online tool to test if they are at risk of burnout,” says Professor Christensen.

“Please note that the tool only gives an indication of risk and does not provide any type of formal diagnosis or medical advice. If you are concerned about your levels of work-related stress, we encourage you to visit a health care provider to discuss the matter,” says Professor Christensen.

Source: Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Categories : Healthcare Politics and Regulations HospitalsTags :

Analysis: Where We Are with NIMART 13 Years Later

On By ModernMedia
Photo by Hush Naidoo Jade Photography on Unsplash

By Tiyese Jeranji for Spotlight

Like many countries, South Africa has a shortage of healthcare workers – particularly of doctors. One response to such shortages is task-shifting – in short, to let doctors focus on the things only they can do, and to shift some other less specialised tasks to other healthcare workers like nurses or pharmacists.

Task-shifting can take many forms. Earlier this year Spotlight reported on a court case that gave the green light to specially trained pharmacists to dispense antiretroviral treatment without a script (the judgement is being appealed). Similarly taking pressure off public sector clinics, the Department of Health has for several years now allowed some people to pick up their medicines at participating private sector pharmacies or other pickup points. Less well implemented, was the introduction of clinical associates in 2008 as a new type of mid-level healthcare worker that can take some of the pressure off of doctors and stand-in for them in some situations.

Probably the most impactful example of task-shifting in South Africa, however, was the introduction of Nurse Initiated and Managed Antiretroviral treatment (NIMART) in 2010.

What is NIMART?

Dr Silingene Ngcobo, a lecturer at the School of Nursing and Public Health at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and a Board Member of the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society, says NIMART is a clinical management program for people living with HIV which is driven by registered nurses. This means that registered nurses can independently manage a person living with HIV, starting from screening and diagnosis, all the way to treating, and monitoring throughout the HIV care continuum in the absence of a medical doctor.

As explained by Mmotsi Moloi, Training Programme Manager at the Aurum Institute (an NGO), prior to the introduction of NIMART in 2010 only doctors were authorised to prescribe antiretroviral therapy.

The rollout of antiretrovirals in South Africa technically started in 2004, but it only gathered momentum after the end of state-backed AIDS denialism in 2008. It soon after became clear that South Africa would not have enough doctors to handle the demand for HIV treatment and nurses would have to be roped in.

“The waiting lists became long, and the doctors could not meet the increasing demand of clients in need of antiretroviral treatment, this led to the death of clients while awaiting to be initiated,” says Moloi. “There was an urgent need to remedy the situation which was to decentralise management of HIV to Primary health care facilities and professional nurses to be trained and authorised to manage HIV infected clients.”

Ngcobo says nurses are often the only healthcare providers available to provide HIV prevention, care, and treatment services. She says the South African healthcare delivery system approach has changed from hospital-centred care to promotion of health and prevention of disease through primary healthcare and the introduction of NIMART fits this shift.

Hard to quantify

According to estimates from Thembisa, the leading mathematical model of HIV in the country, the number of people taking HIV treatment in South Africa increased from 1.2 million in 2010 to 5.7 million in 2022. How big a part NIMART played in this remarkable scale-up of treatment is hard to quantify, but that it played a pivotal role seems clear.

A review study published in 2021 that looked back at 10 years of NIMART in South Africa, found that adequate NIMART training “results in improved knowledge of HIV management, greater confidence and clinical competence, particularly if accompanied by mentoring”.

The review summarised results from several smaller studies conducted in different provinces on NIMART – which show, on a small scale at least, what potential impact NIMART has had. Among other things, the training of nurses to initiate and manage HIV treatment led to feelings of empowerment, and when coupled with appropriate training and support can “lead to increased quality of patient care, confidence and professional development”.

Studies conducted in Johannesburg cited by the review found that NIMART training increased access to HIV treatment, reduced workloads at referral facilities, and reduced referrals to tertiary hospitals. Nurses also saw an “improvement in the quality of life of their patients and the retention of patients in care, which they felt reflected the success of NIMART”.

When asked how many NIMART-qualified nurses we have in the country, Foster Mohale, spokesperson for the National Department of Health, says he can’t provide an exact number since they no longer collect data on NIMART since it has been incorporated in broader HIV training. He also says that provinces are the custodians of data for all trained healthcare workers and points out that the numbers change all the time due to attrition.

What NIMART nurses do

Ngcobo says NIMART nurses assess and screen people living with HIV for treatment eligibility, initiate antiretroviral therapy, provide adherence counselling and monitoring, screen for opportunistic infections, offer various preventative therapies, psychological support, as well as appropriate referrals to other members of the disciplinary team, and oversee repeat visits throughout the healthcare user’s life while managing any other health condition that the person might have.

Nurses also have to support people with tuberculosis and non-communicable diseases (such as diabetes and hypertension) to take treatment as prescribed.

“For effective management of other diseases, NIMART nurses should actually work with all other conditions because a person living with HIV still can gets various other conditions which still need to be managed. Therefore, the role of [the] NIMART nurse is to wholistically manage the patient and provide all the necessary healthcare services that the healthcare user in front of them will be requiring,” says Ngcobo.

Training requirements

The NIMART programme has changed somewhat since its launch back in 2010. Mohale says the programme now also covers the majority of healthcare professionals like medical doctors, pharmacists, registered or professional nurses, and other healthcare professionals who are authorised by their statutory bodies to assess, diagnose, prescribe, and dispense medications. He says in 2017 NIMART was changed to “Basic HIV for Health Care Professionals”, but the name NIMART is still in wide use.

The essence of the programme however remains that a professional nurse, or other qualifying healthcare professional, must complete special training (see this online course for example) before they are authorised to prescribe HIV treatment and manage the treatment and care of people living with HIV. Training typically requires both an exam and some practical work, ideally with the support of a mentor.

All prescribing by nurses in the public sector relies on section 56(6) of the Nursing Act, which allows an exception to the Medicines Act and other health-related laws, explains Andy Gray, Senior Lecturer  in pharmaceutical sciences at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. “They therefore do not need section 22A(15) permits or section 22C(1)(a) dispensing licences in terms of the Medicines Act,” he says.

The legalities of how nurse prescribing works in South Africa is set out in a 2016 policy document issued by the National Department of Health. Amongst others, the document states that, “a nurse may only perform the functions authorised by Section 56(6) in public sector facilities in the district or municipality where the authorisation was granted to him/her”. In other words, nurses who move to jobs at other facilities or in other districts will often require new authorisation before they may prescribe medicines such as antiretrovirals.

Some concerns

But there are signs that training and mentorship is not functioning optimally across the board.

“There is non-standardised training and inadequate mentoring as the country doesn’t have enough trainers,” says Mohale. “There are human resource constraints for both trainers and nurses to be trained. Some districts rely on their district support partners to carry out trainings on their behalf.”

“Staff shortage from the facilities also leads to some nurses not being able to be trained due to demand for other health services at their service delivery points. Some challenges include failure to identify and manage drug-drug and drug-food interactions which are important in making sure that the patients are suppressing their viral loads,” he adds.

Mohale’s comments echo several barriers to the success of NIMART that were identified in the 2021 review study, including: “non-standardised training, inadequate mentoring, human resource constraints, health system challenges, lack of support and empowerment, and challenges with legislation, policy and guidelines”.

Republished from Spotlight under a Creative Commons licence.

Source: Spotlight

Categories : Medical Industry Mental HealthTags :

Rollout of Coaching Programme Reduces Burnout in Medical Residents

On By ModernMedia
Photo by SJ Objio on Unsplash

Researchers found that a national level programme to reduce burnout levels, which disproportionately affects women, was even more successful than its pilot programme two years prior. They published their findings in the journal JAMA Network Open.

“We did a pilot programme in 2021 to see if it would work and it did,” said study co-author Tyra Fainstad, MD, associate professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. “Then we expanded it to 26 graduate medical institutions in 19 states. There were 1017 participants. We saw significant improvement in every wellbeing outcome we assessed including all three subscales involved in burnout.”

Burnout within the health care community is a national epidemic disproportionally affecting women. Last year, the US Surgeon General declared it a `crisis’ deserving ‘bold, fundamental change’ though little was known about scalable, effective solutions to the problem.

Women are hit harder by burnout for reasons that include bias and sexism at work, pay disparities as well as a disproportionate burden of home management and child/elder care, the researchers said.

Fainstad and co-author Adrienne Mann, MD, both faculty in the CU Department of Medicine, created the web-based Better Together Physician Coaching Program at CU Anschutz with the goal of reducing that burnout. Then they replicated it to a national level and published their findings.

While the pilot programme saw improvements in `imposter syndrome’ (feeling as if you ‘don’t really belong in the job’) and self-compassion, the expanded national study also showed significant improvements in outcomes across the board including moral injury and flourishing, offering actual evidence that the program works.

“Physician trainees who received online group coaching over four months had substantial reductions in multiple dimensions of professional distress (burnout, moral injury and imposter syndrome) and improvements in well-being (self-compassion and flourishing),” said Mann.

Mann and Fainstad are both certified life coaches. Better Together is owned and operated by the University of Colorado. It’s not a business, they said, and they don’t personally profit financially from it. The program is available to any heath care institution, school of medicine, department, or residency program wishing to meaningfully support the wellbeing of their clinicians and trainees.

Better Together is web-based. Participants take part in two videoconferencing coaching calls per week where up to five people can be coached live on any topic with an unlimited audience. Calls are recorded for later listening on a private podcast.

Participants can also access unlimited, anonymous written coaching in a forum by submitting a narrative reflection and receive a coach’s response published to Better Together’s secure, members-only website. There are also weekly self-study sessions using videos and worksheets. They focus on topics pertinent to the physician lifestyle such as goal setting, cultivating a growth mindset, receiving critical feedback, imposter syndrome and perfectionism.

The researchers use the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) to measure their work. The MBI has three subscales: emotional exhaustion (EE) or feeling emotionally exhausted from work; Depersonalisation (DP), detached and impersonal treatment of patients; Professional accomplishment (PA), beliefs around competence and success at work.

The EE score is a key construct in health care related burnout. A one point increase in the EE scale has been associated with a 7% increase in suicidal ideation and a 5-6% increase in major medical errors.

The researchers said a reduced mean EE score among those that took part in the training and an increased EE score in those that did not.

“From what we see in this study, coaching helps in every aspect of burnout,” Fainstad said. “The multi-modal nature of our program is unique. You can interact in many ways. That partially explains the powerful impact -that and the group nature of our coaching.”

Mann said the majority are watching others being coached and share in the experience.

“That is deeply connecting. They try to see themselves in someone else’s story,” she said. “When someone is on a view screen you have compassion and empathy for them and, by extension, learn to practice compassion and empathy for yourself.”

While few strategies to address burnout have shown much overall effect, Fainstad said this study demonstrates that group coaching works.

“We’re now showing that we have an actual evidence-based answer to burnout,” she said.

Fainstad and Mann said burnout is a product of the current, often toxic, medical culture pervading every aspect of the profession.

“Culture is a belief system,” Fainstad said. “And while structural changes are absolutely necessary to fix our medical system, working with individuals who have been harmed along the way will be imperative to healing.”

Mann suggested a step towards healing the culture would be making coaching programs like Better Together accessible to everyone – not necessarily mandatory but at least made available by institutions.

“There are other coaching programs in this space but this one is rigorously evidence-based. We studied it,” Mann said. “There are no downsides. It helps in all aspects of burnout.”

Source: University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

Categories : Mental HealthTags :

‘All Work and no Play’ Really does Make ‘Jack a Dull Boy’

On By ModernMedia
Photo by Tim Gouw on Unsplash

A Journal of Personality-published study across three countries discovered people who prioritised achievement over enjoyment were less happy on the next day. Whereas those who aimed for freedom said they had a 13% increase in well-being, recording better sleep quality and life satisfaction.

And participants who tried to relax and follow their hobbies recorded an average well-being boost of 8% and a 10% drop in stress and anxiety.

Dr Paul Hanel from the University of Essex worked with colleagues at the University of Bath on the study, which explored for the first time how following various values impacts happiness. “We all know the old saying ‘All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy’ and this study shows it might actually be true,” Dr Hanel said. “There is no benefit to well-being in prioritising achievement over fun and autonomy.

“This research shows that there are real benefits to having a balanced life and taking time to focus on enjoying ourselves and following individual goals. Ironically by doing this, people could in fact be more successful as they will be more relaxed, happier and satisfied.”

The study, called Value Fulfilment and Well-being: Clarifying Directions Over Time, examined more than 180 people in India, Turkey and the UK.

They filled in a diary across nine days and recorded how following different values affected them.

Interestingly all nationalities reported the same results with the following of ‘hedonism’ and ‘self-direction’ values leading to increased happiness.

‘Achievement’ and ‘conformity’ values had no impact on happiness whatsoever.

However, the researchers believe achievement could impact on happiness when linked to job satisfaction or the amount of days worked.

Professor Greg Maio, University of Bath, said: “This multination project was an exciting foray into questions about how values affect well-being in day-to-day life.

“People often spend most of their days working hard for their daily income, studies, and careers.

“Against this backdrop, where achievement-oriented values have ring-fenced a great portion of our time, we found that it helps to value freedom and other values just enough to bring in balance and recovery.

“In the future, it will be interesting to consider how this pattern interacts with relevant traits, such as conscientiousness, and situational contexts, such as type of employment.”

It is hoped the research will now influence mental health provision and influence therapeutic give to clients.

Dr Hanel added: “Our research further shows that it might be more important to focus on increasing happiness rather than reducing anxiety and stress, which is of course also important, just not as much.”

Source: University of Essex

Categories : Medical Industry Mental HealthTags :

Stress, Overwork, Understaffing Driving Healthcare Workers from NHS

On By ModernMedia
Photo by Usman Yousaf on Unsplash

Work stress, high workload, and understaffing are the primary factors driving health professionals out of the NHS, suggest the results of a survey published in the open access journal BMJ Open.

The findings prompt the researchers to suggest that pay increases alone may not be sufficient to fix NHS staff retention. The NHS is short of well over 100 000 staff and fallout from COVID-19 has seen worsening retention.

The researchers investigated the ‘push’ factors behind decisions to leave the NHS, and whether these were ranked differently by profession and NHS setting, a year after exposure to the effects of the pandemic.

In 2021, NHS health professionals completed an online survey to determine the relative importance they gave to 8 factors as the key reasons for leaving NHS employment.

The respondents included 227 doctors; 687 nurses/midwives; 384 healthcare assistants and other nursing support staff; 417 allied health professionals, such as physiotherapists and occupational therapists; and 243 paramedics from acute, mental health, community, and ambulance services.

Using the paired comparison technique, whereby two push factors at a time were presented at a time, respondents were asked: ‘Which of these two factors is the bigger influence on why staff in your profession/job role leave the NHS’?’

Photo by Pavel Danilyuk

Compared to other professions, paramedics gave a much higher relative weighting to work stress, work-life balance, work intensity and pay higher relative weighting.

The factors compared were: staffing levels; working hours; mental health/stress; pay; time pressure; recognition of contribution; workload intensity; and work–life balance.

Compared to other professions, paramedics gave a much higher relative weighting to work stress, work-life balance, work intensity and pay higher relative weighting. Paramedics also ranked work-life balance as a stronger driver to leave the NHS. They ranked this second compared to a fourth or fifth ranking across the other professions.

Pay was considered more important by healthcare assistants and other nursing support staff and paramedics, but was generally ranked fourth or fifth by other professional groups. 

This contrasts with “some contemporary media and industrial relations accounts, and some academic research findings,” say the researchers, who nevertheless add: “While other variables appear to exert a stronger push than pay, this is not grounds to diminish it as a potential source of dissatisfaction in absolute terms.” 

Overall, health professionals ranked work-related stress, workload intensity, and staffing levels as the primary ‘push factors’ underpinning decisions to leave the NHS. Recognition of effort and working hours were ranked lowest. But there were differences in the order of importance and relative weighting given to the push factors among the different health professions.

Work intensity in acute care hospitals and community services; time pressure in community services; and recognition of effort in mental health services were given higher relative weightings.

“In common with the NHS annual staff survey and all other voluntary participation employee surveys, the potential for self-selection response bias cannot be discounted,” emphasise the researchers. 

But they conclude: “Excepting paramedics, rankings of leave variables across the different health professional families exhibit a high degree of alignment, at the ordinal level, and highlight the primacy of psychological stress, staff shortages, and work intensity.”

They add: “While increases in pay are transparently important to NHS staff, findings from this research suggest that enhancements in that domain alone may produce a modest impact on retention.

“An equivalent conclusion might be drawn with respect to the current high-profile emphasis on increased access to flexible working hours as a solution within contemporary NHS staff retention guidance to employers. 

“Both have potential to do good, but there are grounds for inferring there is a risk that neither may deliver sufficient good to redress the high and rising exodus in the absence of attention to what present as more fundamental factors driving exit.” 

Source: BMJ Open

Categories : HospitalsTags :

Don’t Teach us Resilience – Fix the Problem, Doctors and Nurses Say

On By ModernMedia
Source: Pixabay CC0

A unique collaborative study on hospital clinician wellbeing by teams at 60 of the best US hospitals, was published in JAMA Health Forum. The study found that physicians and nurses, even at hospitals known to be good places to work, experienced adverse outcomes during the pandemic and want hospital management to make significant improvements in their work environments and in patient safety.

The solutions to high hospital clinician burnout and turnover, they say, are not resilience training for clinicians to better cope with adverse working conditions but organisational improvements that provide safe workloads and better work-life balance.

Researchers sought information in 2021 from 21 050 physicians and registered nurses practicing in 60 Magnet recognised hospitals in 22 states. Forty-seven percent of nurses and 32% of physicians experienced high burnout. Twenty-three percent of physicians and 40% of nurses said they would leave their jobs if possible. Less than 10% of physicians and nurses reported experiencing joy in their work.

Many clinicians are downright hostile to programmes – like resilience training – that are designed to adapt them to poor work conditions; clinicians want the working conditions improved.

Linda H Aiken, PhD, study lead author

Not having enough nurses to care for patients, having little control over workloads, lack of confidence in management to resolve problems in patient care, and concerns about patient safety were all associated with higher burnout, job dissatisfaction, and intent to leave among both nurses and physicians.

Lead author Linda H Aiken, PhD, at the University of Pennsylvania said, “Physicians and nurses largely agree about what hospital management could do to address their burnout, job dissatisfaction, and plans to leave their current jobs; they want improved staffing, modern working conditions in which they can spend more time in direct patient care, greater control over their workloads and work schedules, and a higher priority on patient safety.”

Eighty-seven percent of nurses and 45% of physicians said improving nurse staffing was very important to their own mental health and wellbeing. Other high priorities for clinicians were health breaks without interruption and reduced time spent on documentation. Aiken added, “Many clinicians are downright hostile to programmes – like resilience training – that are designed to adapt them to poor work conditions; clinicians want the working conditions improved.”

Clinicians are concerned about quality and safety of care. Half of physicians and nurses lack confidence that their patients can safely manage their care after discharge highlighting the need for improvement in discharge planning. Patient safety remains a concern with 26% of nurses and 12% of physicians giving their own hospitals an unfavorable patient safety grade. Thirty-nine percent of nurses and 33% of physicians feel mistakes are held against them contrary to recommendations of the National Academy of Medicine to search for and correct system deficiencies that cause most medical errors.

The study was carried out by Penn Nursing’s Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research in collaboration with the US Clinician Wellbeing Study Consortium composed of 60 Magnet Hospitals. The study took place in 2021 during the COVID pandemic, a time when all US hospitals were severely challenged. Previous research shows that clinicians in hospitals with better work environments prior to the pandemic had better outcomes during the pandemic. The Consortium committed to this study to learn from their experiences during the pandemic how to sustain and further improve their favourable work environments to better withstand external threats and to rebound rapidly.

Source: University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing

Categories : General Interest Mental HealthTags :

Working with Robots Increases Job Burnout for Humans

On By ModernMedia
Photo by Tara Winstead on Pexels

Having jobs be replaced by robots is a common fear for workers in all sectors of the economy. Working alongside robots may contribute to job burnout and workplace incivility, but self-affirmation techniques could help alleviate fears about being replaced by these machines, according to research published online in the Journal of Applied Psychology [PDF].

Researchers found that workers in the United States and parts of Asia feel job insecurity from robots, even in industries where robots aren’t being used, and those fears may not be justified, said lead researcher Kai Chi Yam, PhD, an associate professor of management at the National University of Singapore.

“Some economists theorise that robots are more likely to take over blue-collar jobs faster than white-collar jobs,” Dr Yam said. “However, it doesn’t look like robots are taking over that many jobs yet, at least not in the United States, so a lot of these fears are rather subjective.”

Researchers conducted experiments and analysed data from participants in the US, Singapore, India and Taiwan.

Working with industrial robots was linked to greater reports of burnout and workplace incivility in an experiment with 118 engineers employed by an Indian auto manufacturing company.

An online experiment with 400 participants found that self-affirmation exercises, where people are encouraged to think positively about themselves and their uniquely human characteristics, may help lessen workplace robot fears. Participants wrote about characteristics or values that were important to them, such as friends and family, a sense of humour or athletics.

“Most people are overestimating the capabilities of robots and underestimating their own capabilities,” Dr Yam said.

Fears about job insecurity from robots are common. The researchers analysed data about the prevalence of robots in 185 U.S. metropolitan areas along with the overall use of popular job recruiting sites in those areas (LinkedIn, Indeed, etc). Areas with the highest robot use also had the highest rates of job recruiting site searches, even though unemployment rates weren’t higher in those areas. The researchers theorised that people in these areas may have felt more job insecurity because of robots, but that there could be other reasons, such as people seeking new careers or feeling dissatisfied with their current jobs.

Another experiment comprised 343 parents of students at the National University of Singapore who were randomly assigned to three groups. One group read an article about the use of robots in businesses, the second group read a general article about robots, and the third read an unrelated article. Then the participants were surveyed about their job insecurity concerns, with the first group reporting significantly higher levels of job insecurity than the two other groups.

While some people may have legitimate concerns about losing their jobs to robots, some media coverage may be unnecessarily heightening fears among the general public, Dr Yam said.

“Media reports on new technologies like robots and algorithms tend to be apocalyptic in nature, so people may develop an irrational fear about them,” he said.

Source: American Psychological Association

Categories : Medical Industry Mental HealthTags :

Mistreatment at Med School Leads to Later Exhaustion, Regret

On By ModernMedia
Photo by SJ Objio on Unsplash

Medical students who experienced mistreatment during medical school were more likely to become exhausted or disengaged, have less empathy, and have career regret, a new study has revealed.

Among a large national sample of trainees, the 22.9% of respondents who reported mistreatment on the Association of American Medical Colleges’ Medical School Year 2 Questionnaire (Y2Q) had higher exhaustion and disengagement scores on the Graduation Questionnaire (GQ) 2 years later, reported Liselotte Dyrbye, MD, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and colleagues writing in JAMA Network Open.

Furthermore, of those who had experienced mistreatment, 18.8% reported career regret on the GQ.

Conversely, medical students who experienced a better environment more likely to:

Have lower exhaustion scores: for each 1-point increase on the Y2Q, there was a 0.05 reduction in exhaustion score
Report lower disengagement scores on the GQ: for each 1-point increase on the Y2Q, there was a 0.04 reduction in disengagement score
Further, reports of having positive interactions with faculty on the Y2Q were associated with higher empathy scores on the GQ. For each 1-point increase, there was a rise of 0.02 in empathy score. Positive student-to-student interactions were linked to having lower odds of career regret during the last year of medical school.

“The potential protective effect of positive experiences within the learning environment may provide insight into strengths that organizations can amplify to mitigate burnout, decline in empathy, and career choice regret among their students,” wrote Dyrbye and colleagues.

The team noted the opportunity for potential interventions. “Although the most effective approaches to addressing mistreatment of learners remain elusive, the frequency of mistreatment varies between educational programs, suggesting there are likely to be levers within the control of the organisation that adequate commitment, leadership, infrastructure, resources, and accountability can lead to a meaningful reduction in mistreatment.”

Average age of the respondents was 28 years, 52% were women, 72.8% were single, and 91% reported having no dependents. The study also found that older medical students reported higher disengagement scores, and that women reported lower exhaustion (by 0.27 points) and disengagement (by 0.47 points) scores on the GQ.

However, women and older medical students had higher empathy scores compared with their male peers (0.74 points and 0.05 points, respectively).

The researchers observed that conflicting findings on burnout among women in medicine have been reported. For example, a longitudinal cohort study of resident physicians across specialties in the US found that female residents were “more likely to develop burnout and have worsening in the severity of their emotional exhaustion between the second and third year of training compared with male residents, even after controlling for various forms of mistreatment.”

Limitations of their own study, the researchers noted, included unestablished differences between the exhaustion, disengagement, and empathy scale measures that were used in the questionnaires; and the varying response rates between questionnaires: 55.5% for the Y2Q and 81.5% for the GQ.

Source: MedPage Today