Key steps: Helping nurses battle burnout
Strategies can help provide vital support to workers
Nurses have gone above and beyond the call of duty.
It's no secret they are at their breaking point and quitting the profession in droves. The mental, emotional and physical exhaustion from the staffing crisis comes at a time with no clear end to the pandemic in sight – and flu season quickly approaching.
According to a recent Press Ganey Flight Risk Analysis of more than 100,000 healthcare employees, nurses under the age of 35 who have been with their company for less than a year are most likely to quit. The greatest risk is with new hires who lack a strong connection with their organization.
Approximately one in five nurses that fit this profile are leaving their jobs.
How to provide nurses with the right support
Amid worsening staffing shortages, what can healthcare leaders learn from other industries about resilience during extended periods of duress?
What they are currently experiencing has stark similarities to when peacetime military shifts to combat footing – except they couldn't have predicted the war on COVID-19 would turn into a multi-year battle, leaving them to question when troops can withdraw.
There are military lessons hospitals can deploy to support the workforce. Through firsthand experience in the U.S. Air Force, Army and Navy, we've implemented strategies during high-pressure scenarios that provide foundational support to prevent a mass exodus. For starters, empower nurses to work at the top of their license. Leaders should start by shifting tasks like bathing, running specimens to the lab and changing linens to nursing aides to alleviate workload.
Also, make certain nurses feel a sense of pride and ownership of what they were able to accomplish since 2020. Hospital leaders should also link these accomplishments to the founding and heritage of the hospital itself, or tie it back to the organization's mission.
Next, acknowledge that managers closest to the front line are generally hit with the highest impact – hence why junior commissioned ranks leave in such high numbers. Since they feel responsibilities acutely, senior leaders owe subordinate leaders mentoring on how to sustain complex operations over time.
Most dire, provide counseling and support immediately to replenish depleted emotional, intellectual and physical reserves versus waiting for the pandemic to end. Routinely address professional, personal, social and emotional needs by asking the following questions:
h Is my staff confident in how to do their job? If not, how can we develop competencies?
h Have I set realistic expectations and communicated the “why” when asking them to go the extra mile? h Have I fostered a culture of teamwork? h Can peer-to-peer relationships be leveraged to improve performance?
h Am I sincerely expressing concerns for their well-being and soliciting issues that can adversely impact them?
Above all else, if a nurse still decides to leave, they must be recognized for their service just like any combat veteran leaving the military.
If healthcare executives wait for conditions to stabilize to course-correct, they will find themselves working through the new implications of a smaller workforce.
Steve Kreiser, Mike Hall and Beth Decker are strategic consultants at Press Ganey.