Improving workplace well-being: Physicians have their say

A new study offered another bleak assessment of burnout and dissatisfying conditions in the health care workforce.

“The hospital workforce remains in disarray despite the ebbing of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said the original investigation. “Physician and Nurse Well-Being and Preferred Interventions to Address Burnout in Hospital Practice – Factors Associated With Turnover, Outcomes, and Patient Safety,” was published by JAMA Health Forum in July 2023.

There was a bright spot: 94% of physicians and 89% of nurses said they had a good working relationship in hospital settings. Regarding management, 42% of physicians and 47% of nurses said they were not confident management would act to resolve problems in patient care that clinicians identify.

What are those best resolutions? Doctors and nurses offered different assessments of what would help. Here are seven interventions that at least 50% of physicians ranked as very important to improve their well-being at work.