Employee burnout can grind even the most successful business to a halt.
After all, it lowers productivity and efficiency rates while also resulting in missed deadlines, client dissatisfaction, and, often, high employee turnover – all of which will have a knock-on effect on a business’s overall performance.
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However, it can be particularly deadly within the healthcare industry. This is because it can compromise patient safety and outcomes while also putting your employee’s own health and well-being in a vulnerable space. As such, business owners working within this sector must work diligently to prevent burnout if they want to succeed in the long term. Read on to find out more!
Burnout in the healthcare industry – how bad is it?
The number of healthcare workers dealing with burnout has been on the rise for some time. For example, a study conducted by the CDC found that “46% of health workers reported feeling burned out often or very often compared to just 32% in 2018.” Not only that but it is also estimated that one in four clinicians want to leave the industry.
What are the consequences of employee burnout in the healthcare industry?
- Lowered morale, making it difficult for employees to work as part of a team or to offer the highest standard of care to patients.
- Lowered productivity rates, making it harder for employees to manage their caseload or stay on top of patient care/appointments.
- Employees are more likely to make mistakes or act in a way that can negatively impact patient outcomes.
- Lowered satisfaction and retention rates from clients or patients.
- Employees are much more likely to take time off or seek employment elsewhere, which, in both cases, can put the rest of their team at risk of the same level of burnout.
- Reputational damage to the care facility itself, making it harder to attract both new patients and employees.
- Significant financial losses, whether that’s due to poor patient outcomes or high employee turnover rates.
What are the signs of employee burnout?
Being able to identify the signs of burnout within your team puts you in the best position to do something about it. Burned-out employees may:
- Lack of enthusiasm for a role that they previously loved
- Appear more irritable or frustrated
- Request more time off work
- Call in sick more frequently
- Complain about their own health or a lack of sleep
- Miss deadlines or make mistakes
- Express frustration relating to their work, the business, or leadership
- Feel as though they are falling short of targets or give up trying to reach new goals
- Work less productively and efficiently
- Avoid social interactions with other employees
How to prevent employee burnout in the healthcare sector.
Fortunately, there are many steps that you can take to prevent employee burnout in the healthcare sector. Doing so will ensure that you set your business and your team up for success in the long run. You can prevent burnout in the healthcare sector by:
- Ensuring that they are not working beyond capacity
- Investing in medical technology and software
- Using AI or machine learning technology
- Promoting a healthy work-life balance
- Developing a workplace wellness scheme
- Creating a safe place for your employees to open up
Ensure that they are not working beyond capacity. While you may be experiencing an increased demand for your services, this does not mean that your team should be expected to work beyond their capacity.
Doing so puts everyone involved at risk. For example, this likely means that their stress levels will be heightened, which can lead to poor or risky decision-making. This, in turn, will impact patient outcomes (as described above).
As such, you should monitor your employee’s workload closely and implement a variety of strategies designed to keep their workload as manageable as possible. For example, this could include outsourcing non-medical staff to external personnel so that your team can focus on the work that you actually hired them for.
Invest in medical technology and software. Investing in medical technology and software can also help to reduce employee burnout. This is because it can streamline otherwise time-consuming processes, making it far easier for your team to stay on top of their daily workload. Not only that, but it can also ensure that patients can access the support services they need or get the answers they deserve as quickly as possible.
For example, if you’re running a facility that uses PACS technology, such as CT Scans or MRIs, then you should invest in PACS software. This will make it easier for radiologists and other healthcare professionals to analyze test results, freeing up a considerable amount of time in the day while also allowing them to prioritize patient care.
Consider using AI or machine learning technology. The healthcare sector is constantly evolving, and keeping up to date with these industry changes can help you to take good care of your team. For example, while it may initially seem as though AI should not be used within healthcare settings, your team could use machine learning technology to help with routine non-medical tasks such as booking routine appointments and tests or responding to general inquiries. This, again, frees up a considerable amount of time in their day, reducing any pressure they may feel.
In the future, AI technology is likely to become even more useful in this regard. For example, many healthcare experts believe that this will become a reliable tool for predicting patient outcomes, such as the likelihood of them entering remission following treatment.
Promote a healthy work-life balance. Promoting and sharing the values of cultivating a healthy work-life balance can also help prevent burnout within your team. This is because it gives your team something to work toward, especially if they often overwork themselves.
You can encourage your team to develop (and stick to) a healthy work-life balance by ensuring that they don’t take on too much overtime and that they are working a reasonable amount of hours each week. You should also encourage them to take any breaks that they are entitled to, as opposed to working through them in order to get through their to-do list.
As an employer, you should also make sure you lead by example in this regard.
Develop an employee wellness scheme. Developing a wellness scheme for your employees can also help to prevent burnout, as it ensures that their needs are catered to both inside and outside of the workplace.
Your wellness scheme should be built around the specific needs of your team but could include some of the following:
- Access to therapy or counseling services
- Discounted gym classes or memberships
- Access to healthcare support should they need it
- On-site stress management and wellbeing workshops
- Regular team-building activities
- Opportunities for professional growth and development
When investing in your wellness scheme, be sure to reach out to your employees directly to see if there’s anything you could have forgotten to include. Not only will this make them much more likely to engage in the program, but it will also heighten employee satisfaction levels.
If you’re still not convinced, a recent study found that once a company has a strong wellness program in place, “employees are up to 90% less likely to report being burned out at work “always” or “very often” and as much as 2x as likely to evaluate their lives and futures positively.”
Create a safe space for your employees to open up. Many employees who are dealing with burnout choose to do so in silence. This is because they worry that opening up will impact their job prospects, as it could mean that they are not up for the challenges that come hand-in-hand with their role. However, this is often not the case – and burnout is a sign of organizational issues as opposed to the faults of individual employees.
One way in which you can combat this is by ensuring that your workplace is a safe space for your employees. This means they will feel comfortable opening up should they need additional help and support. You can make this clear by reiterating this during one-to-one and group meetings or by maintaining an open-door policy.
You should also not be afraid to express your own concerns or vulnerabilities. By doing so, you are showing your team that it is okay to talk about how they are feeling or to express themselves in a similar way.
Final thoughts. In short, there are many steps that you can take to prevent burnout within the healthcare sector – even if it does not seem that way to begin with. For example, you could achieve this goal by working on developing a stellar workplace wellness scheme or by investing money in the latest healthcare technology designed to simplify otherwise time-consuming processes.
Not only that, but the sooner you get started, the better! After all, by doing so, you are making a concentrated effort to make things better for both your employees and those they care for, which can only mean good things for your business.