Program Impact Statement

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“Caring for Those Who Care for Us” - A Mind-Body Pilot Program Addressing the Crisis in Health Care Worker Stress and Burnout

 

     In 1974, the word “burnout” was first used to describe the physical and emotional exhaustion experienced by frontline healthcare workers resulting from the prolonged and excessive demands of their workplace. In the fifty years since, countless studies have shown the crisis has deepened, with secondary traumatic stress (STS) and burnout negatively impacting healthcare workforce efficiency, eroding trust, patient care, and patient satisfaction, increasing costs, medical errors, absenteeism, and job turnover, and contributing to the already dire shortage of clinical and nonclinical healthcare workers (Felton, 1998).

 

     U.S. physician burnout reached an all-time high of 63% during the COVID-19 pandemic (AMA, 2022) and in May 2022, the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General published an Advisory called “Addressing Health Worker Burnout”. In his introduction, Surgeon General Murthy stated, “As we transition towards recovery [from the pandemic], we have a moral obligation to address the long-standing crisis of burnout, exhaustion, and moral distress across the health community. We owe health workers far more than our gratitude. We owe them an urgent debt of action.” (Murthy, 2022)

 

   Integrative mind-body practices such as mindfulness-meditation, Qigong, and auricular acupuncture/acupressure offer effective tools and solutions. They represent free or low cost, accessible, easy-to-learn interventions that help mitigate burnout and improve health-related quality of life and job satisfaction for all healthcare workers. Evidence-based research studies conducted in healthcare settings supports the effectiveness of all three practices. The urgency to retain and expand the American healthcare workforce is undeniable.