National Medical Group Uses Systematic Professional Well-Being Approach to Support Clinicians' Wellness
Envision Healthcare, a leading national medical group, is providing best practices on how to improve the professional well-being of clinicians and mitigate burnout. To help the more than 50 percent of clinicians who experience symptoms of burnout,1 Envision is sharing its mental health resources with the entire medical community.
Throughout the pandemic, clinicians have dealt with similar life stressors that everyone is facing - illness and death of loved ones, child-rearing responsibilities and overall uncertainty - compounded by the trauma and fatigue of fighting a deadly disease for more than 18 months. The post-traumatic stress of the pandemic has and will continue to impact clinicians in the months and years to come.
To help clinicians navigate the many challenges they face in the U.S. healthcare system, Envision has enhanced the wellness resources it provides clinicians and efforts to reduce stigma around mental health, including:
- Advocating for the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act and public policy changes to promote the study of professional mental, behavioral health and burnout among healthcare professionals
- Providing additional crisis peer support and free mental health support services to clinicians as they continue to care for critically ill COVID-19 patients
- Enhancing its wellness program to address the psychological and emotional needs of clinicians, including peer-to-peer support, leadership training and counseling
"As a national medical group, it is a core tenet of our mission to care for and foster an environment that supports the professional well-being of clinicians; however, clinician well-being can't solely focus on the individual - it must encompass personal, organizational, healthcare system and policy interventions," said Stefanie Simmons, MD, FACEP, Vice President of Clinician Engagement at Envision Healthcare. "We must ensure all clinicians have the resources necessary to support their mental health and well-being. Clinicians are there when we need them most - we must be there for them."
To further support clinician well-being, Envision supports organizational and healthcare system policy improvements, such as improving practice schedule flexibility, reforming tort laws and providing student loan relief. While individual well-being and resiliency are important, addressing professional well-being as a systemic issue that is actionable will lead to positive, lasting change.
Read the full clinician professional well-being white paper here.
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1 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2019. Taking Action Against Clinician Burnout: A Systems Approach to Professional Well-Being. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/25521
