Taking good care of patients and protecting COVID-burdened cardiovascular service lines includes caring for the caregivers. Are you focused on your front-line staff?
We are, many healthcare leaders say, but there’s always more to do. That’s the response most healthcare leaders offer. Many clinical and administrative leaders are employing creative, out-ofthe-box thinking to engage, enrich, nurture and distract their staff who are facing unprecedented challenges and risks.
Even before COVID-19 hit, burnout and fatigue were taking a toll on as many as one-half of and head of internal medicine at NorthShore University Health System and professor of medicine at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine.
Then along came the pandemic and with it “a lot of uncertainty,” says Erwin. “It’s like trying to fix an airplane engine while flying.”
Among the new stressors on cardiology teams are anxiety about virus exposure and spread; increased isolation; new financial strains; and evolving family demands, such as around child care and schooling.
“Burnout and fatigue have always been part of our lives, but now they’re taking a more intense form,” says Carolyn Rosner, MSN, NP-C, clinical manager of Innovative Programs at INOVA Heart and Vascular Institute. A recent INOVA survey found that staff resiliency is lower than it was a year ago, she says.
How are cardiovascular practice leaders taking care of their teams during these challenging times? Stress-management training, exercise programs and small-group programs that focus on mindfulness, community, connectedness and meaning are effective ways of treating burnout, according to a recent article in the Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine (online July 9, 2020).
CREATIVE CONNECTIONS
Communication is more critical than ever during times of challenge and change, says Rosner. At INOVA, leaders make time to recognize staff successes, do mental health check-ins, and keep their COVID-19 dashboard current.
It’s more important than ever to schedule activities that create connections among team members and help to counter the effects of isolation, which is a leading contributor to burnout, says Richard Kaplon, MD, MHCM, heart surgeon and chief wellness officer at Mercy Medical Group and head of cardiology and cardiovascular surgery at Mercy General Hospital, Dignity Health, in Sacramento.
Since in-person social gatherings aren’t feasible, Mercy is taking advantage of video meetings to bring their teams together for activities that have nothing to do with their jobs. Staff log on for yoga classes, book clubs, financial counseling and even celebrity chef demonstrations.
“The idea is to distract and connect, not teach people how to make scones,” Kaplon says.
LEARNING FROM THE OTHER FRONT LINE
“The front lines of healthcare have a lot in common with the front lines of combat,” Erwin says. Before he moved to NorthShore this year, he was at Baylor Scott & White Health in Texas, where physicians received small-group training from combat veterans.
Initially, cardiologists were reluctant, but many later reported that working with the veterans was life changing and career saving, Erwin says. He’s planning on reinventing the program at NorthShore.
STAY FOCUSED BUT FLEXIBLE
Taking a flexible approach to work while keeping a laser focus on your organization’s mission can go a long way toward easing anxiety and fatigue, Rosner says.
Leaders can help their teams cope with stressors by recognizing that they don’t “have to be at work to show commitment to the team,” she says.
Such flexibility helps staff cope with new issues that are cropping up against the backdrop of COVID-19. For example, INOVA recognized that parents may be overwhelmed as their children’s schools adopt remote or hybrid schedules. To help, the health system has created resources for students and set up Facebook groups for parents and children, Rosner says. Dignity Health, too, is sup porting parents on their teams by offering tutorials for children at specific grade levels, Kaplon says.
No matter what, Rosner advises, try to “be flexible and generous with yourself.”