Healthcare Worker Wellbeing
Burnout is real—addressing it so healthcare workers can thrive goes beyond offering individual support resources. That is why NIOSH is:
- Launching a national campaign with free, evidence-informed resources to help hospital leaders:
- Think differently about how to maximize existing resources,
- Fine-tune current processes, and
- Establish new policies at their hospital that include wellbeing as a key performance indicator.
- Developing an actionable guide, tested in real-world settings, to help hospital leaders implement systems-level changes, from revising existing processes to making it safe for staff to access mental health care.
Download NIOSH’s Healthcare Worker Wellbeing: Making the System Work for Healthcare Workers fact sheet to learn more.
One of the most substantial systems barriers to healthcare worker wellbeing is intrusive mental health questions on hospital credentialing applications [The Physicians Foundation 2022; Weston et al. 2022]. Healthcare workers fear losing their credentials because of overly broad and invasive mental health questions that are stigmatizing and discriminatory [Halter et al. 2019; Jones et al. 2018].
The Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation developed three simple steps hospital leaders can follow to remove this barrier and make it safe for their healthcare workers to seek the care they may need.
all credentialing applications, addendums, and peer review forms.
any invasive or stigmatizing language around mental health.
these changes back to the workers and assure healthcare workers that it is safe for them to seek care.
ALL IN: WellBeing First for Healthcare, an independent coalition of healthcare organizations led by the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation, is recognizing hospitals for taking these three steps to remove intrusive mental health questions from credentialing applications. To become a WellBeing First Champion for Credentialing by September, submit your credentialing applications to the ALL IN coalition for verification.
To receive updates and resources from NIOSH’s upcoming healthcare worker wellbeing campaign, sign up for the Total Worker Health® mailing list:
- Halter MJ, Rolin DG, Adamaszek M, Ladenheim MC, Hutchens BF. [2019]. State nursing licensure questions about mental illness and compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. J Psychosoc Nurs Ment Health Serv 57(8):17-22. doi: 10.3928/02793695-20190405-02
- Jones J, North C, Vogel-Scibilia S, Myers M, Owen R [2018]. Medical licensure questions about mental illness and compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 46(4):458-471. https://jaapl.org/content/46/4/458
- The Physicians Foundation [2022]. 2022 survey of America’s physicians: Part two of three: Understanding the state of physicians’ wellbeing and assessing solutions to address it. Boston, MA: The Physicians Foundation, https://physiciansfoundation.org/physician-and-patient-surveys/the-physicians-foundation-2022-physician-survey-part-2/.
- Weston MJ, Nordberg A [2022]. Stigma: A barrier in supporting nurse well-being during the pandemic. Nurse Lead 20(2):174-178. doi: 10.1016/j.mnl.2021.10.008.