The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reports a staggering uptick in stress and burnout among healthcare employees, culminating in a projected net shortage of over three million essential healthcare workers within the next five years.
Employee burnout, low engagement and staff shortages don’t just affect healthcare employees either. Instead, they significantly impact patient safety and outcomes, along with the operational effectiveness of the healthcare facility.
Now, more than ever, industry leaders are searching for ways to reduce burnout by improving employee engagement in healthcare. Some strategies are easier to implement and more effective than others in raising employee engagement levels.
Challenges healthcare workers face, and how employee engagement can help
Even before COVID struck, healthcare employee engagement levels were tanking, especially for frontline workers. Fast forward to our post-pandemic world, and now healthcare employees are shouldering even more.
From heavier workloads, limited resources and longer hours to rising compassion fatigue and stress, investing in the best employee engagement strategies in healthcare is the healing balm healthcare workers — and their patients — need.
Limited access to learning material and resources
With ongoing employee shortages in healthcare comes increased workloads and added strain on the providers who remain at the helm of patient care. These shortages fuel the need for these care providers to assume new and varied roles to compensate for this deficit.
To quell this shortage, boost employee engagement, reduce care-provider errors and improve retention, healthcare leaders must prioritize providing greater access to continued education (CE) training and other resources, along with effective centralized communication channels.
Without access to these resources, front-line care providers won’t have the knowledge they need to provide the best patient care possible. This can lead to added stress and lower engagement levels and, at the same time, compromises patient safety and derails positive health outcomes.
Increasing administrative workloads
Healthcare professionals are master multi-taskers. But with rising staff shortages, effective multitasking has reached a tipping point. Now, the remaining staff is juggling their job duties and those left behind by colleagues who have resigned.
Medscape reports that the leading cause of burnout among medical professionals is the increased number of administrative tasks they’ve assumed. Shouldering heavy administrative workloads has caused more stress and burnout, leaving a wake of negative consequences that impact their ability to provide quality patient care.
Healthcare leaders and administration must offer innovative technologies in their healthcare setting to consolidate and streamline these tasks to alleviate the ever-growing burden on their clinical care team.
Significant burnout and stress
Healthcare providers are in one of the most high-stakes professions in the world. Care providers are coping with overbearing stress, isolation and burnout at record levels.
According to the New England Journal of Medicine, on May 23, 2022, Dr. Vivek Murthy sounded the alarm on rising burnout in healthcare by issuing a Surgeon’s General Advisory on “health worker burnout and wellbeing.” Dr. Murthy deemed it a “crisis” and declared it a national priority with clear directives to reduce its growth and impact on healthcare professionals and their patients.
One of Dr. Murthy’s directives centered on building a healthcare culture that supports well-being, inclusion and respect. Creating a positive work atmosphere will require all hands on deck, from government leaders to health admin, physicians, nurses, and feedback from care providers across the spectrum.
Healthcare leaders can foster this collaboration by encouraging regular feedback via accessible communication channels in their healthcare facilities, often in the form of feedback forms and surveys.
How your screens can help you keep your staff engaged
Improving employee engagement in healthcare doesn’t have to be complicated. Start by using your existing resources —such as your facility’s screens — to make real and lasting changes for your healthcare employees. UPshow SHIFT for healthcare will streamline this process for you.
Make information accessible
One of the most effective ways to reduce your employees' stress levels (and improve their engagement) is to give them access to the resources and knowledge they need when they need it to provide quality patient care.
UPshow SHIFT is a digital employee engagement platform that can run on your facility’s screens as an on-premise signage cloud. Since most healthcare employees are deskless workers, ensuring everyone has access to the resources and communication channels necessary to perform at their best can be challenging.
With UPshow SHIFT, you can offer access to these resources and engage your healthcare providers in the following ways:
- Continuing education training, feedback forms and more are made accessible through customizable on-screen QR codes that will put administrative information right in the hands of your employees.
- Need-to-know educational videos, text announcements, images and tutorials that can help keep your clinical staff updated on your facility’s (and the medical profession’s) latest policies and procedures.
- Streamlined digital information that ensures widespread visibility throughout your facility (and each of its satellite locations).
- Display upcoming training modules, training statuses and other tasks to ensure faster completion and compliance.
Make communication a consistent practice
Many of your employees are on the move, treating one patient to the next. Equipping them with easy-to-access communication channels and the resources they need will keep your staff in the know and reduce clinical errors.
With UPshow SHIFT, your facility will find it easy to:
- Create customized content via in-app Canva integration and pre-made templates so you can share critical information, announcements and more.
- Solicit targeted feedback from your employees to improve engagement by creating surveys for two-way communication and ongoing dialogue about issues relating to operations, HR, patient care and more.
- Prioritize employee morale and show appreciation by showcasing staff on your displays, celebrating your team's successes and highlighting your employees' achievements and milestones.
UPshow can help you keep your employees and patients engaged
Healthcare professionals can’t provide patients with outstanding quality care when they’re battling their own stress and burnout. As Dr. Murthy advises, addressing burnout is a national priority, and healthcare facilities are on the frontlines of making significant changes to bring it under control. UPshow SHIFT can streamline training, promote employee recognition and improve internal communications to boost employee engagement in your healthcare facility. Try a risk-free demo today, and put your team on the frontlines of making lasting change across the healthcare industry.
