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AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions on psychological well-being, burnout and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms among working registered nurses. BACKGROUND: Nurses account for nearly half of the global healthcare workforce and are considered significant contributors in multi-disciplinary healthcare teams. Yet, nurses face high levels of psychological distress, leading to burnout and post-traumatic stress disorder. Mindfulness-based training is a strategy that has been introduced to foster a state of awareness of present physical, emotional and cognitive experiences to regulate behaviour. DESIGN: This systematic review of randomised controlled trials was designed according to PRISMA guidelines. Eligible studies were screened and extracted. Methodological quality was evaluated by two researchers, independently. RevMan 5.4 was used to conduct the meta-analysis. Results: Fourteen studies including a total of 1077 nurses were included, of which only eleven were included in the meta-analysis as the remaining had missing or incomplete data. Meta-analysis revealed that MBI was more effective than passive comparators in reducing psychological distress, stress, depression and burnout—personal accomplishment. When compared to active comparators, MBI was also found to be more effective in reducing psychological distress and was as effective in reducing stress, anxiety, depression and burnout. Evidence on the effects of MBIs on PTSD was scarce. CONCLUSION: Mindfulness-based interventions can effectively reduce psychological distress, stress, depression and some dimensions of burnout. However, evidence remains scarce in the literature. There is a need for more methodologically sound research on mindfulness-based training among nurses. Relevance for clinical practice An important aspect that relates to the success of mindfulness-based interventions is the continued and dedicated individual practice of the skills taught during mindfulness training amidst demanding clinical work environments. Therefore, relevant support for nurses must be accounted for in the planning, design and implementation of future mindfulness-based interventions.

Behavioral technicians (BT) within the field of applied behavior analysis may be at greater risk for experiencing burnout and stress due to the nature of their clients, job demands, and work environments. Burnout and stress may negatively impact BT’s work performances, more specifically, their treatment integrity. Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT) may be a useful tool to address the private events as well as the covert and overt behaviors associated with burnout and stress. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of an ACT intervention on improving treatment integrity and reducing work-related burnout and stress amongst BTs. Four BTs participated in an ACT workshop, and their treatment integrity as well as their burnout and stress levels were measured prior to and following the ACT workshop. Treatment integrity increased for all participants, suggesting that ACT-based interventions may be an effective approach to improving work performance (i.e., treatment integrity) amongst BTs who may experience workplace burnout and stress.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to examine the effects of death anxiety and perceived end-of-life care competencies on the fear of terminal care among clinical nurses. METHODS: This correlational study was conducted from June to July 2021. The study included 149 clinical nurses employed at a tertiary hospital and seven other hospitals. The measurement tools used in this study were the Thanatophobia Scale (Cronbach’s α=0.87), the Death Anxiety Scale (Cronbach’s α=0.80), and the Scale of End-of-life Care Competencies (Cronbach’s α=0.94). These instruments were chosen to assess the levels of fear of terminal care, death-related anxiety, and competencies in end-of-life care. RESULTS: The mean score for fear of terminal care was 3.32±1.32. Differences in fear of terminal care were observed based on the working unit, position, number of patients requiring terminal care, and experience with end-of-life care education. Fear of terminal care was significantly positively correlated with death anxiety and significantly negatively correlated with end-of-life care competencies. In multiple regression analysis, the factors influencing fear of terminal care were attitudes toward end-of-life care competencies (β=-0.39, P<0.001), death anxiety (β=0.24, P<0.001), knowledge of end-of-life care competencies (β=-0.22, P=0.005), and behaviors related to end-of-life care competencies (β=-0.16, P=0.021). These factors explained 64.6% of the total variance (F=25.54, P<0.001). CONCLUSION: This study suggests that developing nurses’ end-of-life care competencies and reducing death anxiety are crucial for managing the fear of terminal care. Therefore, providing end-of-life care education and psychological support programs is important.

BACKGROUND: There is extensive literature on physician burnout showing that it correlates with individual mental and physical illness, leads to adverse patient outcomes, and is financially costly to health systems. Further, understanding physician burnout is a step towards improving physician wellness. Investments in physician wellness nationwide have occurred in a broad assortment of ways; however the literature does not present wellness funds to residents as a previously studied approach. OBJECTIVE: Our goal was to study the impact of wellness credits on resident burnout and assess residents’ overall perspective of the intervention on their daily wellness. We hypothesize a decrease in burnout and an overall positive assessment of the program by involved residents. METHODS: In the Fall of 2021, the University of Chicago EM Residency program began to give financial stipends during the most difficult rotations as a novel approach to mitigating resident burnout. This was a quasi-experimental, prospective study investigating the impact of stipends on EM resident burnout. Following the intervention, a post-intervention survey was sent to residents to assess perspectives on the initiative. RESULTS: 36/49 residents (73%) responded to the survey. Over half of residents “often” or “always” (42%, 8%, respectively) had difficulty completing daily chores, and 72% of residents used more than half or all of the gift cards for such chores. In turn, 74% of residents “agree” or “strongly agree” that the initiative benefits their overall wellness.” Finally, 100% of respondents would like to see the initiative continue. CONCLUSIONS: All respondents felt that the gift card initiative should continue; the majority of residents used this help with daily chores that they had difficulty fulfilling. Further, residents reported an increase in wellness after this initiative. We plan on investigating this intervention in relation to individuals’ Maslach Burnout Inventory.

INTRODUCTION: Use of the electronic health record (EHR) has become increasingly widespread. Higher EHR burden is associated with burnout, but this has not been specifically investigated among gastroenterology (GI) providers. METHODS: We retrospectively collected measures of EHR use for outpatient GI providers during a 6-month period. We compared metrics across provider sex, sub-specialty, and training (physicians vs non-physician providers [NPPs]). RESULTS: Data collected represented over 16,000 appointments from 41 providers across the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and hepatology specialists spent more time per appointment in the EHR, clinical review, and outside regular hours compared to other sub-specialists. NPPs spent more EHR time than physicians. CONCLUSION: IBD and hepatology specialists and NPPs may have disproportionally high EHR burden. More work is needed to understand differences in provider workload to combat burnout.

INTRODUCTION: Resident duty hour restrictions have resulted in improved resident safety with mixed results on patient safety. There are limited data about 24-hour shifts in obstetrics and gynecology. This project studies resident wellness and performance after eliminating 24-hour call shifts. METHODS: This is a preliminary analysis of a quality improvement project. Physicians were surveyed before and after implementation of a call schedule that reduced 24-hour shifts to 14-hour shifts. Resident performance was assessed by self-reported and attending-reported ability to perform tasks. RESULTS: At preintervention survey, 13 out of 16 residents and 8 out of 17 attendings favored eliminating 24-hour call shifts. Attendings had more confidence in residents' performance on 24-hour shifts than residents did (P<.02) when stratified by task and residency year. At 3-month follow-up, all residents (19/19) preferred 14-hour shifts. Residents reported improvements in wellness (13/13), sleep (13/13), and burnout (10/13). Residents felt more confident in their ability to perform a vaginal delivery (11/13), cesarean birth (12/13), or communicate effectively (11/13) with 14-hour compared to 24-hour shifts. Thematic analysis showed that residents felt happier and better able to care for patients. Two residents cited improved ability to learn, while only one resident cited lost learning opportunities. CONCLUSION: Data suggest that obstetrics and gynecology residency programs should eliminate 24-hour shifts to improve resident wellness and performance, while decreasing burnout. Final follow-up data (to be collected March 2023) will assess whether attendings see a change in resident performance.

INTRODUCTION: Exposure to patient death places healthcare workers at increased risk for burnout and traumatic stress, yet limited data exist exploring exposure to death among emergency medical services (EMS) clinicians. Our objective was to describe changes in EMS encounters involving on-scene death from 2018 to 2021. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed deidentified EMS records for 9-1-1 responses from the ESO Data Collaborative from 2018 to 2021. We identified cases where patient dispositions of death on scene, with or without attempted resuscitation, and without EMS transport. A non-parametric test of trend was used to assess for monotonic increase in agency-level encounters involving on-scene death and the proportion of EMS clinicians exposed to one or more on-scene death. RESULTS: We analyzed records from 1109 EMS agencies. These agencies responded to 4,286,976 calls in 2018, 5,097,920 calls in 2019, 4,939,651 calls in 2020, and 5,347,340 calls in 2021. The total number of encounters with death on scene rose from 49,802 in 2018 to 60,542 in 2019 to 76,535 in 2020 and 80,388 in 2021. Agency-level annual counts of encounters involving death on scene rose from a median of 14 (interquartile range [IQR], 4–40) in 2018 to 2023 (IQR, 6–63) in 2021 (P-trend < 0.001). In 2018, 56% of EMS clinicians responded to a call with death on scene, and this number rose to 63% of EMS clinicians in 2021 (P-trend < 0.001). CONCLUSION: From 2018 to 2021, EMS clinicians were increasingly exposed to death. This trend may be driven by COVID-19 and its effects on the healthcare system and reinforces the need for evidence-based death notification training to support EMS clinicians.

BACKGROUND: Emergency medicine (EM) clinician well-being has been negatively impacted throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Resident physicians are particularly vulnerable yet less is known about their perspectives. METHODS: The objective of this study was to use qualitative methods to understand EM residents’ perspectives on well-being during COVID-19. EM residents at an urban, academic institution in the USA were recruited via email and participated in virtual, semi-structured interviews between November 2020 and February 2021. Interviews were conducted by a trained qualitative researcher, recorded, transcribed and de-identified by a third party vendor. All transcripts were double coded by two trained study team members using thematic analysis to identify the themes and interviews were stopped when no new themes emerged. RESULTS: Seventeen semi-structured interviews were conducted until thematic saturation was reached with residents in their first 4 years of training: 6 postgraduate year (PGY)-1 (35%), 6 PGY-2 (35%), 2 PGY-3 (12%) and 3 PGY-4 (18%). Five themes were identified: (1) isolation from peers in training contrasting with a collective call to action, (2) desire for increased acknowledgement and structured leadership support, (3) concerns about personal needs and safety within the clinical environment, (4) fear of missed educational opportunities and lack of professional development and (5) need for enhanced mental and physical health resources. CONCLUSIONS: This qualitative study elucidated factors inside and outside of the clinical environment which impacted EM resident well-being. The findings suggest that programme and health system leadership can focus on supporting peer-to-peer and faculty connections, structured guidance and mentorship on resident career development and develop programmes which bolster resident on-shift support and acknowledgement. These lessons can be used by training programmes to better support residents, but the generalisability is limited due to the single-centre design and participation.

INTRODUCTION: Few studies have examined emergency nurses who have left their job to better understand the reason behind job turnover. It also remains unclear whether emergency nurses differ from other nurses regarding burnout and job turnover reasons. Our study aimed to test differences in reasons for turnover or not currently working between emergency nurses and other nurses; and ascertain factors associated with burnout as a reason for turnover among emergency nurses. METHODS: We conducted a secondary analysis of 2018 National Sample Survey for Registered Nurses data (weighted N = 3,004,589) from Health Resources and Services Administration. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, chi-square and t-test, and unadjusted and adjusted logistic regression applying design sampling weights. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in burnout comparing emergency nurses with other nurses. Seven job turnover reasons were endorsed by emergency nurses and were significantly higher than other nurses: insufficient staffing (11.1%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 8.6-14.2, P = .01), physical demands (5.1%, 95% CI 3.4-7.6, P = .44), patient population (4.3%, 95% CI 2.9-6.3, P < .001), better pay elsewhere (11.5%, 95% CI 9-14.7, P < .001), career advancement/promotion (9.6%, 95% CI 7.0-13.2, P = .01), length of commute (5.1%, 95% CI 3.4-7.5, P = .01), and relocation (5%, 95% CI 3.6-7.0, P = .01). Increasing age and increased years since nursing licensure was associated with decreased odds of burnout. DISCUSSION: Several modifiable factors appear associated with job turnover. Interventions and future research should account for unit-specific factors that may precipitate nursing job turnover.

[This is an excerpt.] The Emergency Service Provider Wellness Commission (Commission) within the Agency of Human Services was established in 2021 by 18 V.S.A. § 7257b. The purpose of the Commission is to “consider the diversity of emergency service providers on the basis of gender, race, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability status, and the unique needs that emergency service providers who have experienced trauma may have as a result of their identity status.” [To read more, click View Resource.]

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have exponentially increased stress, anxiety and burnout levels for all healthcare professionals and students. The psychological effects of working with COVID-19 patients and the physical stress of working under distressing conditions exacerbate an already stressed workforce. Working long hours, shift work, short staffing, demanding workloads, dealing with death and dying and conflicts with management, other staff and disciplines and poor communication between disciplines are among the issues that can lead to burnout, anxiety and depression. Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) or tapping is a holistic practice that is easy to learn and apply to self and produces relief from stress, anxiety and the symptoms of burnout within in minutes. There are many websites, videos, and tutorials which can teach and support the healthcare practitioner in the practice of EFT.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to an unprecedented need for mental health support for hospital employees. To address these rising needs, members of the Psychiatry Department of Weill Cornell Medicine/NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital created a brief, behavioral skills-based mental health crisis intervention program termed “CopeNYP.” Due to the success of CopeNYP’s treatment model in reducing anxiety and depression, NewYork-Presbyterian adopted and expanded this model as its Employee Assistance Program (EAP). This EAP provides access to short-term counseling for over 38,000 employees and their household members. We describe the transition from a brief intervention to an expanded internal EAP. We report on user characteristics including client demographics and work-related variables. Our program yielded a utilization rate of 4.25% from July 2021 to March 2022. Nurses, administrative staff, and professional and allied health staff were the top three employee groups to utilize the services. The most prevalent presenting problem was Anxiety/Stress. Creating an internal EAP to support healthcare worker needs, including high quality mental health interventions, is feasible. We found that our EAP utilization rates were on par with other internal EAPs. In the era of healthcare burnout, internal EAPs can be beneficial for frontline staff who seeks intervention for mental health and relational issues.

Over the past decade, hundreds of studies have been published on employee voice and silence. In this review, I summarize that body of work, with an emphasis on the progress that has been made in our understanding of when and why employees choose to speak up or remain silent, as well as the individual and organizational implications of these choices. I identify underexplored issues, limitations in how voice has been conceptualized and studied, and promising avenues for future research. Although there has been notable progress in our knowledge of voice and silence, numerous key questions remain, and there are opportunities for the literature on voice to adopt a broader view of that construct. One of the objectives of this review is to motivate and guide research that will address those questions and explore that broader view.

[This is an excerpt.] Recruitment and retention in the nursing workforce have long been a concern (Buerhaus et al., 2017), particularly for minority nurses (Murray & Noone, 2022), but the severity and significance of nurse staffing shortages during the COVID-19 pandemic have brought these concerns to the forefront (Matthews et al., 2022). Understanding how to facilitate success for baccalaureate-prepared nurses is essential to building the nursing workforce. Nursing students' academic success and graduation are critical components of the nursing workforce. Although retention strategies have been developed to address barriers to graduation (Ackerman-Barger et al., 2020; Cameron et al., 2011; Etowa et al., 2005; Melillo et al., 2013; Murray et al., 2016), student retention remains a problem. Persistence has been identified as a key concept for understanding student retention in higher education (Nagaoka et al., 2013). The study of persistence in graduating Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) students could provide insight into how these students navigate their educational program and why they choose to stay. This study examined factors that helped students to persist and succeed in a BSN program. [To read more, click View Resource.]

This paper examines the topic of physician burn-out from a philosophical lens. We explore the question of how the rise of physician burn-out may be related to an underlying erosion of meaning in medicine, characterised by the breakdown of the intersubjective relationship between doctors and patients. We argue that while commonly cited strategies for addressing burnout—including promoting work-life integration, cultivating workplace community, and fostering resilience—are critical for enhancing physician well-being, the common thread linking these approaches is that each identifies the physician as the primary locus of intervention. We propose that physician-centric approaches alone may be insufficient in addressing burnout, as the work might also involve shifting our attention to the intersubjective space that exists between the physician and the patient. To further elucidate the connection between intersubjectivity and the creation of meaning in medicine, we call on twentieth-century philosopher Emmanuel Levinas. Applying Levinas’s philosophy to the clinical context, we discuss the phenomenon of ‘depersonalisation’ and ask whether, rather than a mere consequence of burnout, depersonalisation might be a core cause of this condition. With these points we shed light on an idea that is relatively absent from the burn-out literature: that a person-oriented approach is vital not only for patient well-being but for physician wellness as well, as a process that ‘de-personalizes’ patients might result in a simultaneous dehumanisation of physicians themselves. Drawing inspiration from Levinas, we explore how a reorientation towards the intersubjective, dialogical dimension of the doctor-patient dyad could serve as one important ingredient in healing not only the patient, but the physician as well.

BACKGROUND: Nurses experienced intense ethical and moral challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our 2020 qualitative parent study of frontline nurses’ experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic identified ethics as a cross-cutting theme with six subthemes: moral dilemmas, moral uncertainty, moral distress, moral injury, moral outrage, and moral courage. We re-analyzed ethics-related findings in light of refined definitions of ethics concepts. RESEARCH AIM: To analyze frontline U.S. nurses’ experiences of ethics during the COVID-19 pandemic. RESEARCH DESIGN: Qualitative analysis using a directed content methodology. PARTICIPANTS AND RESEARCH CONTEXT: The study included 43 nurses from three major metropolitan academic medical centers and one community hospital in the northeastern, mid-Atlantic, midwestern, and western United States. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS: Participant privacy and data confidentiality were addressed. FINDINGS: Moral dilemmas arose from many situations, most frequently related to balancing safety and patient care. Moral uncertainty commonly arose from lacking health information or evidence about options. Moral distress occurred when nurses knew the right thing to do, but were prevented from doing so, including with end-of-life issues. Moral injury (accompanied by suffering, shame, or guilt) occurred after doing, seeing, or experiencing wrongdoing, often involving authority figures. Nurses expressed moral outrage at events and people within and outside healthcare. Despite difficult ethical situations, some nurses exemplified moral courage, sometimes by resisting policies they perceived as preventing compassionate care, guided by thinking about what was best for patients. DISCUSSION: This content analysis of ethics-related subthemes revealed conceptual characteristics and clarified distinctions with corresponding exemplars. Conceptual clarity may inform responses and interventions to address ethical quandaries in nursing practice. CONCLUSIONS: Ethics education in nursing must address the moral dilemmas of pandemics, disasters, and other crises. Nurses need time and resources to heal from trying to provide the best care when no ideal option was available.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate current levels of and factors contributing toward burnout and resiliency among new graduate nurses to identify effective mitigation strategies. BACKGROUND: New graduate nurses are at a high risk of increased turnover in the 1st year of employment. An evidence-based, graduate-nurse centered approach is essential to improving nurse retention among this cohort. METHODS: A cross-sectional study involving 43 new graduate nurses was completed in July 2021 (a subset of a larger sample of 390 staff nurses). Nurses were recruited to complete the Brief Resilience Scale, the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory, and a demographic survey. RESULTS: New graduate nurses scored within “normal resiliency.” This cohort reported moderate levels of burnout overall. Higher levels were reported within personal- and work-related subgroups. CONCLUSIONS: Strategies to reduce burnout and increase resiliency in new graduate nurses should be focused on improving personal and work-related burnout.

Our aim was to implement a well-studied coaching program for nurse practitioners working in long-term care facilities with the goal of reducing burnout and improving the well-being of these providers. Self-reported psychological metrics were used to assess the impact of the program.

BACKGROUND: In the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, strains on the healthcare system forced many U.S. states to revisit long-standing statutory limitations on the care coordinated by advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs). This was done by issuing waivers via executive, legislative, or board of nursing orders. PURPOSE: To identify the impact of temporary practice waivers on APRNs’ direct patient care during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: This cross-sectional study utilized a two-phased approach. First, a confidential online survey was conducted of APRNs practicing across 27 U.S. states. Second, comprehensive APRN discipline data from 2019 to 2021 were retrieved from the National Council of State Boards of Nursing's Nursys database and reviewed. Univariable and multivariable binary logistic regression models were used to determine the significance of observed trends. RESULTS: A total of 16,699 APRNs responded to the survey for a response rate of 14.2%. APRNs practicing in private outpatient clinics, in rural areas, and in health provider shortage areas were more likely to report a positive effect of the practice waiver (all p < .05). Providers noted that the waivers allowed them more time with their current patients and expanded the geographic boundaries of their direct patient care to take on new patients. Furthermore, despite the changing profile of APRN care during the early stages of the pandemic, including a pronounced increase in telehealth usage, the current review found no evidence of an uptick in discipline cases brought against APRNs in 2021. CONCLUSION: Full practice authority for APRNs benefits patients by promoting expanded access to care and increasing the resiliency of our healthcare system without compromising patient safety. It is time for states and organizations that employ APRNs to recognize that permanently removing barriers to APRN practice is essential to the health of our nation.

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This resource is found in our Actionable Strategies for Government: Optimizing Workload & Workflows (Reduce Administrative Burden).

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BACKGROUND: Physician burnout is a multibillion-dollar issue in the United States. Despite its prevalence, burnout is difficult to accurately measure. Institutions generally rely on periodic surveys that are subject to recall bias. SMS text message–based surveys or assessments have been used in health care and have the advantage of easy accessibility and high response rates. OBJECTIVE: In this pilot project, we evaluated the utility of and participant engagement with a simple, longitudinal, and SMS text message–based mental health assessment system for physician-trainees at the study institution. The goal of the SMS text message–based assessment system was to track stress, burnout, empathy, engagement, and work satisfaction levels faced by users in their normal working conditions. METHODS: Three SMS text message-based questions per week for 5 weeks were sent to each participant. All data received were deidentified. Additionally, each participant had a deidentified personal web page to follow their scores as well as the aggregated scores of all participants over time. A 13-question optional survey was sent at the conclusion of the study to evaluate the usability of the platform. Descriptive statistics were performed. RESULTS: In all, 81 participants were recruited and answered at least six (mean 14; median 14; range 6-16) questions for a total of 1113 responses. Overall, 10 (17%) out of 59 participants responded “Yes” to having experienced a traumatic experience during the study period. Only 3 participants ever answered being “Not at all satisfied” with their job. The highest number of responses indicating that participants were stressed or burnt out came on day 25 in the 34-day study period. There were mixed levels of concern for the privacy of responses. No substantial correlations were noted between responses and having experienced a traumatic experience during the study period. Furthermore, 12 participants responded to the optional feedback survey, and all either agreed or strongly agreed that the SMS text message–based assessment system was easy to use and the number of texts received was reasonable. None of the 12 respondents indicated that using the SMS text message–based assessment system caused stress. CONCLUSIONS: Responses demonstrated that SMS text message–based mental health assessments are potentially useful for recording physician-trainee mental health levels in real time with minimal burden, but further study of SMS text message–based mental health assessments should address limitations such as improving response rates and clarifying participants’ sense of privacy when using the SMS text message–based assessment system. The findings of this pilot study can inform the development of institution-wide tools for assessing physician burnout and protecting physicians from occupational stress.