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Restoring Joy in Work for the Healthcare Workforce

Feeley D, Swensen SJ. Restoring joy in work for the healthcare workforce. Healthcare Executive. 2016 Sept;31(5):70-71.

While burnout in the health professions is alarmingly high, restoring joy in work is more than just reducing burnout. So, what can leaders do to counteract this epidemic? This article describes four key steps that leaders can take to restore, foster, and nurture joy in the health care workforce.

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by Elena Tindall 4/22/2020 2:07:41 PM This is definitely useful, for middle management and senior leadership. It is a helpful reminder that during challenging times with low staff morale, stressed staff, there are ways to identify and address improvements that will significantly improve staff's Joy In Work, when leadership incorporates the team's ownership of the solution, and when leadership really listens to What Matters to the team. Healing professionals have often been chided about their own poor self care. It's also important to hold our systems accountable for identifying better ways to manage workflow efficiency for revenue with caring for our healers.

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by Matilda Amos 4/18/2020 1:54:38 PM This article is a nice digestible, quick review. Also a good article to share with colleagues for a quicker read, vs. the whole White Paper. Thank you! - Matilda

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by Cheryl Thomas Nduati 10/5/2018 11:56:22 PM I find the tool useful. I have used it in the past on an 18-month PIF. It helps one to find the small details that make or break a process/program. I have to do this project by hand the old fashion way.

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by Sabine Clasen 9/7/2016 5:37:43 AM The article points to a trend in health care - the discouraged, disillusioned, and burned-out health care worker who tries to find meaning and fulfillment. Unfortunately, the problem is much more complex and is closely related to the fact that physicians, nurses, and nurse's aids are required to work more tasks in less time with the focus on "tasks", which dehumanizes the patient as well as the worker. Changes in staffing and reimbursement create a climate in which health care workers are pressured to provide high-quality patient centered care but are left with not enough time and resources to do exactly this. Patients and their families value a caring and knowledgable professional who has time to listen - but this is not reality. Restoring joy in health care workers requires to re-think how we deliver care and to consider that finances are important but should not reduce the worker to a number - which seems to be the case nowadays.

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by Penny Paucha 9/6/2016 9:35:12 PM I agree that this article does oversimplify a complex issue. However, there are some key points mentioned that we have found improve morale in our work with healthcare professionals. Starting with what matters is of critical importance. But health care professionals suffer from a kind of learned helplessness, feeling that the care they provide makes very little difference. This is where the true opportunity lies; we must be vigilant for those instances, regardless of how small, where a difference is made. Even on the worst days there are many examples. We must also support health care providers by giving them evidence of the difference that is made, and be dogged about reflecting not just on the problems, but on the progress. Another critical aspect is challenging the lie that healthcare providers are responsible for a patient's health. Patients have choices and it's the health care professionals' responsibility to offer the best support and advice possible to inform those choices.

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by Peter Knox 9/6/2016 4:52:00 PM Stimulating article. In our work the key issue is empowering staff to dream and realize those dreams of what they want in their jobs and their lives. Everyone at all levels being able to take action in a well orchestrated team to contribute in meaningful ways to important outcomes. Every team member working at their highest level of capacity. When care givers of all disciplines are spending only 40-50% of their time on licensure level of work the dream is replaced with a nightmare. People bogged down in roles that lack meaning and clarity of purpose unfortunately are the norm in healthcare. Ask a simple question of care givers...how much of your time is spent on licensure level meaningful work? Joy in work requires complete redesign in the way we think, act, work and interact. The system as a whole will need to change in order to spread and scale the new models of care that truly invigorate and bring passion back to the forefront of our work.

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by Erica Natal 9/6/2016 4:38:03 PM Philosophically, I agree with the article. Realistically, I know that asking staff "what matters to you?" needs to come with deliverables. Staff will not take nicely to being asked what matters and then not being able to "fix" it when they tell us.

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by Darren Luellman 9/6/2016 4:37:27 PM This is an oversimplification of a complex problem. It reads like someone trying to make a non defined concept fit into an environment it is not meant for. Unfortunately they don't really define the concept of "joy" and because of this it is hard to understand what their point is. This article also reads like it is written by someone who has never actually worked in a direct care role. Sorry but as a leader I can no take anything away from this article.

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by Steven Sawicki 9/6/2016 4:00:04 PM This reads like one of those marketing pitches or television paid advertising programs that sell a single solution to a varied problem. Joy? Sure, great stuff. I'll get to it as soon as I am able to clear my desk of the 14 hours of work that is expected of me each day. Want me to be more joyful? Surround me with competent staff who are not tasked with doing more than they are capable of within any given time period, reduce expectations that even superman would struggle with, and become more realistic about outcomes and work production. I'm currently doing 5 times the work I was doing 3 years ago with one third the number of additional staff and twice the expected deliverables while having a greatly reduced budget. Joy? Sorry, no time and can't afford it.

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by G. Alan Yeasted 9/6/2016 3:32:36 PM Attempting to combat burnout by nurturing joy in the workplace sounds enticing, but one need only spend a day with a practicing physician to realize how ineffective that would be at this point. External interference by the government, insurers, and hospital administrators with the doctor-patient relationship has rendered this futile approach. Until physicians have the autonomy and reimbursement commensurate with their time and training in the care of patients, this burnout will continue to worsen.

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Restoring Joy in Work for the Healthcare Workforce

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