Dr. Laxmi Mehta, a noninvasive cardiologist and chief well-being liaison and faculty director of the Gabbe Health and Well-Being Program, checks a patient’s heart. Credit: Courtesy of Amy Colgan
When thinking of health care workers, it can be easy to overlook their humanity. Because they are so often associated with healing others, people tend to forget they experience anxiety and exhaustion just like all people do; more likely, to an even greater degree.
Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center was one of 72 health systems in the country to receive the American Medical Association’s Joy in Medicine award this year, which recognizes groups that show dedication to their employees’ well-being by combating work-related stress and burnout, according to an Oct. 3 press release. Medical center employees shared the ways they experience and work through these potentially harmful feelings on a day-to-day basis.
Dr. Laxmi Mehta, a noninvasive cardiologist and the chief well-being leader of the medical center’s Employee Wellness Program, defined burnout as “emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and dissatisfaction with your personal accomplishments while working in a perceived stressful environment.”
In the medical field, Mehta said burnout is brought on by a variety of stressors such as a perceived lack of control, heavy workloads and a lack of work-life balance. She said the use of technology also has the power to lead to burnout.
“Technology has separated us from the patients,” Mehta said. “Things that brought most of us into the joy of medicine, into taking care of patients, is that interaction with patients, and you’re losing it when you’re behind the screen and things like that. The technology and innovation have been great, but it also is a double-edged sword in medicine.”
Stephanie Overbey, a kidney pre-transplant coordinator at the medical center, said burnout also results from a lack of resources, such as adequate staffing or physical space.
“When we aren’t able to provide the care that we know our patients deserve and that they need, when we are feeling like we don’t have the resources to do that, that is a very frustrating feeling,” Overbey said. “Nursing is something that kind of lives inside of your heart, so when you feel like you know what you need to do, but you don’t have the resources to do it, that’s usually a tipping point for me.”
Beyond the scope of individual burnout, Overbey said being a part of a nursing union has helped to foster a broader sense of dedication to mental well-being.
“That is a great support to us,” Overbey said. “When we feel like maybe working conditions are unfair, or not getting a break, or running around crazy without enough staff, we have that level of support, and we have people who are on our side who can say, ‘No, this is where we draw the line, this is not enough for these nurses to keep working.’”
Shemikka Young, a clinical research assistant in the Division of Neuromuscular Disorders, said her team has established a support system so strong it was able to help her through a traumatic time in her personal life.
“They were watching over me like angels,” Young said. “They were calling me, they were messaging me, they were helping me out when I was not able to focus on my job completely. They were helping me get through.”
Between the Stress, Trauma and Resilience — also known as STAR — program, the Mindfulness in Motion program, employee recognition “BRAVO” cards and numerous other resources available to employees, Mehta said the medical center is working to foster a “culture of wellness.”
Overbey agreed the medical center’s available resources can be extremely beneficial in creating a culture of wellness but said such tools are “not the end-all, be-all” because of larger problems associated with understaffing.
“Sometimes people feel as if it’s too little too late if you’re not going to give the unit enough nurses but be like, ‘Here, go to this mindfulness class,’ that’s not helpful,” Overbey said. “So going to this class, while it’s going to teach you tools on how to deal with those situations, but it’s not going to fix the problem itself.”
Overbey said nurse understaffing is a national phenomenon. The problem, she said, isn’t that nurses aren’t being hired, but rather that nurses are leaving their jobs due to burnout.
“In my heart when I leave work, I want to feel like I made a difference and I want to feel like I actually genuinely helped someone,” Overbey said. “When you can’t, or you feel like you have to do it the best you can because you don’t have the resources, whether it’s staff or space, I can see why that leads to burnout really quickly.”
Dr. Laxmi Mehta with the Joy In Medicine recognition acknowledging Ohio State’s efforts to improve physician well-being. Courtesy of Amy Colgan, Senior Media Relations Consultant for the Wexner Medical Center.
Dr. Laxmi Mehta with the Joy In Medicine recognition acknowledging Ohio State’s efforts to improve physician well-being. Courtesy of Amy Colgan, Senior Media Relations Consultant for the Wexner Medical Center.Mehta said the medical center intends to “re-up” after the award’s two-year period ends, meaning the Employee Wellness Program is currently developing more effective ways to combat burnout and foster a culture of wellness.
“How can we optimize the workload so that people are getting the best they can out of their technology and being able to spend the time with the patients?” Mehta said. “System optimization is something that we’re looking at too, so we’ve developed a strategic plan and that’s in the early phases of implementation.”
Though there is still progress to be made, Mehta said Ohio State can be distinguished from other universities that did not receive the award because its approaches toward well-being in the workplace are too individualistic.
“We need to be innovative and say, ‘It’s not just the individual, but there’s a culture that needs to be attached,’” Mehta said. “Much of the well-being and burnouts are related to the system, and so addressing the systemic issues. Many organizations have things that say, ‘Let me fix you,’ but they need to turn inwardly and fix the system.”
More information on the Joy in Medicine award can be found here.
