Caring well for patients also means caring for those who provide care.
Still, it’s no secret that the burnout crisis in health care predates COVID-19, and the pandemic further exacerbated the issue, said Victor Dzau, MD, president of the National Academy of Medicine.
Dr. Dzau discussed the crisis Monday with UNMC’s Breakthrough Thinking audience and outlined the broad steps NAM is taking to optimize well-being.
“It cannot be business as usual,” Dr. Dzau said, noting burnout creates both harmful consequences for patient safety and costly repercussions to the health care system. “We need future thinking and action … a national movement.”
Watch the Breakthrough Thinking presentation with Dr. Dzau.
In response, NAM has launched a national, systems-approach to improve clinician well-being across the health care spectrum. The plan engages a broad group of stakeholders — from the government and academia to accrediting bodies and health IT companies — to address priorities to:
- Create and sustain positive work and learning environments and culture;
- Invest in measurement, assessment, strategies and research;
- Support mental health and reduce stigma;
- Address compliance, regulatory and policy barriers for daily work;
- Engage effective technology tools;
- Institutionalize well-being as a long-term value; and
- Recruit and retain a diverse and inclusive health workforce.
In 2017, Dr. Dzau launched the NAM Action Collaborative on Clinician Well-Being and Resilience, a network of more than 200 organizations — including UNMC — committed to reversing trends in clinician burnout. Last fall, the collaborative published the National Plan for Health Workforce Well-Being, designed to raise the visibility of clinician anxiety, burnout, depression, stress and suicide; improve baseline understanding of challenges to clinician well-being; and advance evidence-based, multidisciplinary solutions to improve patient care by caring for the caregiver.
During his presentation, Dr. Dzau applauded UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, MD, and UNMC for its commitment to the national effort, noting Dr. Gold co-leads NAM’s Working Group on Mobilizing National Stakeholders, which helps mobilize and sustain the engagement and accountability of key health care stakeholders. In addition, NAM is using UNMC’s UNePlan tool to help track the National Plan’s strategies and progress.
“This is a dramatic time in health care … for a lot of different reasons, and focusing on clinician well-being is foundational to building the future,” Dr. Gold said. “Without a well-functioning workforce of the future, anything and everything else will pale in importance.”