Nurses and physicians are experiencing high levels of burnout and job dissatisfaction, which negatively affect patient care quality and safety. Many report they would leave their current hospital positions if possible, according to a study by Aiken and colleagues in the July issue of JAMA Health Forum. Turnover rates for both groups were also found to be significantly associated with nurse burnout and job dissatisfaction.
The roughly 15,000 nurses and 5,000 physicians surveyed worked in the adult medical-surgical areas of 60 Magnet hospitals in the United States. Hospitals earn Magnet status by measures deeming them good places to work, adding heft to the survey's negative findings. Almost a quarter of the study participants rated their hospitals unfavorably regarding some aspects of patient safety. Poor control over workloads and chaotic work environments contributed to the clinicians' dissatisfaction.
Survey respondents were asked to rank the interventions they thought were most important for improving clinicians' well-being. A top priority for both nurses and physicians was improving nurse staffing levels. Ensuring scheduled, uninterrupted breaks, better team communication, and allowing more control over individual schedules also ranked high in importance. Both groups prioritized interventions that would enable them to deliver better quality patient care above programs focused primarily on clinician well-being, such as meditation sessions and resilience training. Yet respondents expressed little faith that hospital management would act to resolve the identified problems and revamp the work environment.
The authors note that the study was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, which could have influenced the results. However, they also point out that prepandemic research also documented high burnout rates in nurses and physicians prior to the pandemic.
Resources with practical recommendations for addressing burnout are available from the American Nurses Association (http://www.nursingworld.org/practice-policy/work-environment/health-safety/nurse), National Academy of Medicine (https://nam.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/CR-report-highlights-brief-final.pdf), and the American Hospital Association (http://www.aha.org/physicians/well-playbook).-Gail M. Pfeifer, MA, RN