From this month's WHO Bulletin. Citation, extracts and a comment from me below.
Reimagining effective workplace support for health workers
Jenny JW Liu et al.
Bull World Health Organ. 2024 Jun 1; 102(6): 375–375A.
Published online 2024 Jun 1. doi: 10.2471/BLT.24.291896
PMCID: PMC11132152
PMID: 38828059
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11132152/?report=classic
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic revealed systemic weaknesses in health-care systems worldwide. The breadth of challenges left health workers overwhelmed and overstretched, reducing their professional efficacy and causing long-term issues with retention, recruitment and education of future cohorts...
First, shift from individual-level to organizational-level resilience... Instead, organizations need to acknowledge their roles and responsibilities in fostering a working environment that is psychologically safe, supportive, and that promotes thriving and growth.
Second, move towards a dual continuum of mental health...
Third, engage health workers...
Fourth, recognize that health worker burnout is a systemic, universal issue...
Through continued engagement and collaboration, health workers and leaders are collectively tasked to co-identify problems, co-generate solutions, and build agency towards an organizational future with more robust support systems...
COMMENTS (NPW): Several years ago, the International Council of Nurses ran an initiative called Positive Practice Environments, which align with the above (particularly the first). HIFA provided the content on Meeting the information needs of healthcare workers, based on inputs from HIFA members. www.hifa.org/sites/default/files/other_publications_uploads/FS_PPE_Meeti...
HIFA recognises, indeed emphasises, that meeting information needs is only part of what health workers need to empower them to deliver high quality care. We use the acronym SEISMIC to recognise some of the other needs.
https://www.hifa.org/about-hifa/hifa-universal-health-coverage-and-human...
What is missing is metrics. If an institution, district or even a whole country could provide a set of metrics to measure the extent to which health workers' needs are met - a set of metrics where health workers themselves had a central role in developing - then perhaps we would be some way to understanding and addressing health workers' needs.]
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org