Resiliency Demands Flexibility
As a health and safety motivational speaker with a strong focus on healthcare, I deeply feel for the unsung heroes who brought us through the pandemic. However, though the outside world sees the risks in healthcare as being “over,” nothing could be further from the truth. Stress is at an all-time high.
The Crunch
Healthcare professionals are leaving the industry in record numbers. According to the Hospital Careers website (February 2022):
“1 in 5 healthcare workers have either quit their jobs or left medicine since the pandemic began…this amounts to more than 500,000 workers across the industry in total…around 18% of workers have chosen to leave their positions, while a further 12% have left due to lay-offs.”
Perhaps the outside world might think, “Now that COVID is ‘over’ everyone is returning.” Wrong.
There is a staffing and bed crunch unlike any that have been seen before. Obviously, given staffing shortages and this “bed crunch,” safety concerns are at an all-time high. Every healthcare professional from nurses and physicians to risk assessment people are wondering how they can be proactive to prevent tragedies from occurring.
No one is doubting that tremendous innovations are coming onto the healthcare scene however, patient safety issues ranging from improper medications to horrific surgical mistakes are absolutely heartbreaking.
Mitigating risk
Mistakes occur, and as a health and safety motivational speaker I understand the frustrations; changing policies and procedures in any kind of patient care setting is the same as trying to turn a battleship in a lake.
Those who try to be healthcare disrupters (though I dislike that label when placed on well-meaning people) are often told “that’s impossible,” or “keep dreaming” when they advance a perfectly logical idea on fixing a problem. No wonder there is increasing burnout.
What has happened to resiliency? Why has an entire system become so stubborn to change that it no longer listens or supports or remotely considers an idea that could save lives? Paradoxically, this system has the potential to be the greatest in the world if it could develop the flexibility to adapt to its challenges. Why won’t it?
The greatest strength
In 2022, the greatest strength healthcare possesses isn’t a new medication or diagnostic tool, it is the team. The faith in one another is what will see the profession through its challenges.
However, the determination to create a new mindset, a new way of seeing things, must be in the willingness of one another to be flexible to change. The flexibility can only come about if step-by-step, healthcare teams show as much compassion for one another as for their patients. Given the huge turnover, the mindset has obviously been lagging.
It will take a greater vision for the future and the determination that everyone on the team – and their patients, must be safe in mind and body. This won’t happen by accident, but by conviction.
Change is overwhelming if it is seen as overwhelming. Change is manageable, if the team sees it in terms of small steps that can be accomplished.
Which will you choose?
To reach Scott Burrows, Health and Safety Motivational Speaker, please contact Scott Burrows today by phone at 520 – 548 – 1169 or through this website.
