Promoting organizational wellness
Posted by Laurie Morgan, MBA
Even before the pandemic, alarm bells Were ringing about burnout in health care. Thankfully, the pandemic has receded from view. And though it amplified the burden of burnout on physicians, one very positive result came out of that traumatic experience: more attention to physician wellness.
You’re likely going to field candidate questions about your wellness efforts. Here are a few thoughts on how to answer.
Avoid a focus on "resilience"
With so much at stake and such a complex problem, it’s not surprising that burnout and physician wellness stymied many organizations at first.
Unfortunately, this thinking may have led some hospitals and health systems to focus too much initially on physician resilience. This, in turn, led to the oftmocked "yoga and pizza party" type of response that many physicians see as minimizing or misdiagnosing the problem at best or blaming the victim at worst.
As a recruiter, when asked about wellness efforts, be sensitive to this skepticism among candidates when discussing how your organization has responded to burnout.
Keep the focus on operational changes your organization has made to improve physicians’ work lives (versus offers of additional exercise or thank-you gifts).
The right little things can count for a lot
The notion of operational change for wellness purposes may seem a little daunting, especially if your organization has been cautious about tackling burnout. But your organization might be doing some things that aren’t labeled "wellness" that meaningfully support physician well-being.
When speaking with candidates, it can be useful to have knowledge of some of these "hidden" wellness efforts in your back pocket.
For example, are vacationing physicians expected to be reachable (common, but not ideal), or can they truly unplug? Does your organization offer expert help with emr optimization? Does telemedicine allow for some portion of work to be done from home? Does your hospital offer an oldschool doctors’ lounge that physicians value? These all may be worth mentioning in connection with wellness efforts. What the "little things" above have in common is they all have specific physician needs in mind.
Physician involvement is key
Spotlighting the ways your physicians are involved in building burnout responses and wellness programs sends a powerful signal to candidates that your organization isn’t just throwing money at the issue but is engaging (and hearing) the people most at risk and best suited to diagnose problems.