Burnout among healthcare professionals can have a significant impact on operations and patient care. Organizations must implement drastic changes to prevent this issue from worsening. Learn three tips to help reduce provider burnout with compliance.
Common Causes of Provider Burnout and Its Implications
Different healthcare workers all experience high levels of burnout. One study identified that 47.3% of physicians, 56% of nurses, 54.1% of clinical, and 45.6% of non-clinical staff surveyed have reported experiencing burnout. Unfortunately, this can influence a provider’s mental health, create several challenges, and cause the quality of care they deliver to decline.
In some cases, providers may even leave the industry. There are numerous causes why healthcare providers can undergo feelings of burnout:
- Healthcare practitioners work long hours with intensive workloads.
- They experience heavy administrative burdens.
- The use of electronic health records (EHR). According to a poll, seven out of ten practitioners state the utilization of EHR can massively contribute to feelings of burnout.
- They have little say in their schedules.
- Not enough time to work on patients.
- The job makes it difficult to achieve work/life integration.
- Lack of organizational support.
Burnout can also have several implications on operations, including:
- Increased medical errors: Providers experiencing burnout are twice as likely to make errors. This situation could lead to wrong diagnoses and even result in a patient dying.
- Decreased quality of patient care: Burnout can cause staff to have less morale, impacting the care they provide.
- Workers leaving the sector: Intensive burnout can cause healthcare physicians to seek a new career. This can cause the remaining staff to feel overworked and make them feel burnt out.
- Decrease staff compliance: When workers undergo feelings of burnout, they are less inclined to follow regulations and policies, which could create massive problems down the road.
3 Tips to Decrease Healthcare Burnout
Here are three tips healthcare organizations can employ to decrease provider burnout.
Prioritize Mental Health and Self Care
To help decrease burnout among staff, organizations can implement procedures that promote self-care. For example, when onboarding new employees, the training can emphasize why having strong mental health is vital. It could also promote ways for staff to work on their mental wellbeing.
Training also provides practitioners with the necessary tools to overcome many of the burdens they experience on the job. In addition, organizations should also encourage workers to take frequent breaks as this can help lessen the feeling of burnout. It helps them feel more relaxed and ready for the next tasks they have to undertake.
With providers prioritizing self-care, they can create a better balance between their work and personal life. According to research, employees who establish an equilibrium between work and personal life are twice as happy as those who do not.
Offer More Support for Staff
Another great tip to help alleviate staff burnout is to ask them what they require. After all, they are the ones experiencing these challenges — they will know how to make it better. It will create an environment where staff feel supported by their organization.
In addition, the healthcare facility should also look to free up resources and implement employee assistance programs (EAP) to further supply staff with the necessary support. These can help staff adequately deal with the difficulties they experience on the job.
Organizations could also look into peer support programs. These allow practitioners to speak with other workers who have walked the same path. It can help them feel less alone and provide valuable insight into remedying the challenges they experience.
Implement Technology to Lessen Administrative Burden
Providers face heavy administrative workloads that add to burnout. Currently, practitioners need to rely on older manual systems that are inefficient and time-consuming. To help with this, organizations should look to modern technological solutions to aid in easing this burden.
The technology healthcare facilities implement in an organization should be easy to use and have a low learning curve. In addition, they should also offer training on these systems to ensure that staff knows how to operate them.
Preventing Burnout Among Healthcare Providers
It is of the utmost importance for healthcare organizations to invest in procedures that help alleviate burnout among staff. Burnout could lead to on-the-job errors, poor mental health, lower quality of care, and increased worker turnover rates.
With healthcare facilities implementing these tips and taking a holistic approach, they can effectively reduce the amount of burnout providers experience.