Healthcare Resilience is More than Dollars and Cents
As a healthcare resilience and overcoming adversity speaker, it was interesting to read a recent piece (February 7, 2023) by physician and healthcare expert, Sanjay Saxena titled, “For US Hospitals, Resilience Requires Tough Choices.”
“Even before the pandemic, there were healthy provider organizations, ones that were getting by, and ones that were struggling. The pandemic exacerbated the issues that each of them faced. The healthy ones became less healthy, the ones that were okay started to flash yellow and even red, and then the ones that were struggling are looking at bankruptcy or other alternatives. Today, everyone is struggling to achieve favorable financial performance.”
Among the many challenges that the author presented, included financial pressures, supply chain, and staffing and was the issue of burnout. Across the spectrum of hospitals, from “healthy to critically ill,” it has become increasingly clear that healthcare staffs, and especially nurses have gone through dreadful times.
Picking up on that theme was an excellent summary in Nursing Journal on March 23, 2023 where it was noted: “The growing nursing shortage has highlighted the critical need to pay greater attention to nurses’ mental health. Stress, fatigue, and burnout have taken a toll on nursing staff and are a primary driver in the mass exodus of nurses in 2022.”
The article placed particular importance that although resources exist for mental health care, hospitals must do a much better job to help workers to find the resources and indeed to “encourage staff to prioritize preventing nursing burnout.”
As a healthcare resilience and overcoming adversity speaker I am often surprised that nurses, technicians and other professionals are neither getting the priority they deserve nor are they fully viewed people so much as expense items or dedicated professionals who need and deserve care, understanding and resources.
If there is agreement
If there is general agreement as to healthcare trends and the need for greater resilience, then what can be done to expedite the process? To my mind, as a healthcare resilience speaker, the greatest need and the highest priority for healing must begin with the healthcare providers themselves.
Why isn’t more attention and nurturing being paid to provider mental health? Beyond calls for salary increases, there is much more that needs to be done for the human.
The key is to champion one another; to work together to bring about change and to celebrate what has been done and what must be done to make things better.
The knee-jerk response of the media is “look at how great healthcare providers are; more should be done to help them.” They are nice sentiments, but predictable and non-productive. The future of healthcare is not just digital but emotional, and it must be recognized.
The only way healthcare providers can go forward in 2023 and beyond, is to be there for one another; to be determined to help and nurture one another.
To become more mentally healthy as providers requires the resilience to be there and fight. It is much more than dollars and cents. Adversity can be overcome if there is a commitment to change the way healthcare providers are viewed, not only as professionals but as people. Change must start today.
To reach Scott Burrows, Healthcare Resilience and Overcoming Adversity Speaker. contact Scott today at: 520 – 548 – 1169 or through this website.
