We could expect increased cases of moral injury when dealing with a https://www.unmc.edu/newsroom/2021/04/26/town-hall-topic-supporting-wellness-in-health-care-colleagues/ health crisis or challenging and stressful working environments; where important decisions—perhaps concerning life and death—are required to be made fast and where the ability to follow optimal care protocols is reduced. Examples might include where a healthcare worker has to make the difficult decision as to who will get oxygen or be put on a ventilator and who will not if there are a finite number of life saving oxygen points or ventilators available. Several cross-sectional studies have linked burnout to suboptimal patient care practices e.g., (17–20)—as well as with a doubled risk of medical error and a 17% increased odds of being named in a medical malpractice suit (21). Work related stress can have a negative impact on health care providers’ professionalism, quality of care delivery, efficiency, and overall quality of life. The resulting psychological distress can lead to burnout, depression, anxiety disorders, sleeping disorders, and other illnesses (5, 6, 8, 9).
In these interventions, participants are asked to write about three good things that they are grateful for each day, along with causal explanations of how they brought about those things or events. In other words, while experiencing stress, the emotion and fear center of the brain is less aroused in those who practice mindfulness than in those who do not. Mindfulness meditation may counteract the negative inflammatory effects of stress by changing gene expression over time to downregulate inflammatory proteins . During times of physiological stress response activation, therefore, the neural centers responsible for interpreting and reducing stress responses are also activated, resulting in stress reduction. Two trials designed a combined intervention focusing on resilience and mindfulness. Most were administered in the workplace in the form of courses ranging from two days to eight weeks.
Resources for Health Workers and Leaders
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed and intensified preexisting vulnerabilities within healthcare systems, placing HCWs under immense pressure. Experts contributing to the consultation agreed that urgent collective action to address health system factors that lead to stress and burnout in the workforce is essential. Expanding upon knowledge to address this threat to health systems, the WHO Health Workforce department organized a 26 April technical consultation on Protecting health and care workers’ mental health and well-being in Leuven, Belgium.
- Work can be a protective factor for mental health, but it can also contribute to potential harm.
- For years, organizations have turned to therapy-directed care as the cornerstone of workplace mental health.
- This potential conflict of interest has been reviewed and managed by OHSU.
- Multiple PPIs have been described; in this paper, we focus on those studied specifically in healthcare workers.
Psychological distress
Investing in workplace safety measures, mental health support programs, and addressing violence reduces both workers’ compensation claims and incident severity—direct costs that impact the bottom line while improving retention. With 55% of American healthcare workers considering leaving their jobs in the next year and 61% of nurses planning to leave their positions within 12 months, the financial pressure on organizations will intensify dramatically. In healthcare specifically, lost productivity from absenteeism costs U.S. employers $225.8 billion annually, with healthcare workers having among the highest absence rates of any industry. As Saudi Arabia and Gulf countries rapidly advance their healthcare systems, the need for a skilled, adaptable, and well-supported workforce is more important than ever.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was declared a global pandemic on 11 March 2020 by the World Health Organization.1 The pandemic’s short-term and long-term impact on healthcare workers’ mental health and well-being remains largely unknown. Many reported experiencing high levels of fatigue, strain, stress, loss, distrust, public anger and unrest, and threats of violence, as well as personal loss and grief.2 NIOSH has developed burnout prevention training specifically for supervisors of public health workers.23 Improving workplace policies and practices is the best way to address burnout. Other articles describe updated surveillance data on mental health outcomes among health workers, organization-level interventions to improve mental health outcomes, and efforts partners are engaged in to support mental health and well-being among health workers. A study involving a total of 214 healthcare workers in Turkey found that in order to raise the psychological resilience of healthcare professionals working during the COVID-19 pandemic their quality of sleep, positive emotions, and life satisfaction need to be enhanced.
