Visiting a hospital or healthcare provider for treatment can be a vulnerable moment. When placing trust in nurses, doctors, and other providers, patients should be confident that their care team has all the resources needed to offer high-quality, compassionate care.
Today, healthcare providers face incredible strains that can cause detrimental effects on their own health and well-being. High workloads, administrative burdens, and poorly designed technologies too often divert clinicians’ time away from caring for patients. Over 60% of healthcare professionals report experiencing symptoms of burnout, such as extreme anxiety, stress, depression, and emotional exhaustion. Burnout can have heartbreaking consequences, including clinician suicide and errors that can lead to poor patient outcomes, including preventable deaths.
High-stress work environments contribute to staffing challenges that reduce patients’ access to care. Burnout drives many health workers to leave the practice, including 20% of physicians, 40% of nurses, and more than 30% of public health workers. Challenges in the U.S. health system take a heavy toll on patient care: 1 in 3 patients report being dissatisfied with the care they receive.
Change is possible. Healthcare providers and patients deserve better. By taking action to support health worker well-being, we can reduce clinician burnout, safeguard patients, and improve the healthcare experience for everyone. Let’s support our health workers so they can focus on caring for us.
Resources for change
The National Academy of Medicine offers several opportunities and resources to help overcome the clinician burnout crisis and safeguard patients.
The National Plan for Health Workforce Well-Being offers a roadmap to prioritizing health worker well-being, which, in turn, can improve patient experiences and outcomes. Using the National Plan, health systems, clinical training programs, and academic institutions can help create working environments where there is trust and clear communication among leaders, healthcare providers, and patients.
Healthcare organizations can join the Change Maker Campaign, a community committed to making workforce well-being a priority. The national network is focused on building momentum and sharing knowledge, meaning that health organizations of all sizes can implement effective practices and programs. Everyone can help raise awareness by participating in the annual Health Workforce Well-Being Day through organizing and attending events or posting on social media. The annual observance was launched in 2024 with a congressional resolution to raise awareness about the critical link between health worker well-being and patient care.
