About Impact Wellbeing™

Why it's needed

Healthcare workers have historically faced challenging working conditions. Even before the pandemic, the National Academy of Medicine found that burnout had reached "crisis levels" among U.S. healthcare workers.1

While many hospitals have made strides to address healthcare worker wellbeing, it is critical to go beyond encouraging self-care.2 Addressing workplace policies and practices is the best way to reduce burnout and support healthcare workers' wellbeing. Operational changes can optimize patient outcomes and address costs associated with staff turnover, lost revenue, and threats to a hospital's long-term viability.2

Healthcare workers experience an increased risk of suicide and other poor mental health outcomes due to a variety of factors, including:

• Difficult working conditions;
• Long work hours, rotating and irregular shifts;
• Emotionally difficult situations with patients and patients' family members;
• Workplace violence; and
• Routine exposure to human suffering and death.134

Audiences

The primary audience is hospital leaders. These are decision-makers within hospital systems, including Chief Executive Officers, Chief Operating Officers, Chief Administrative Officers, Chief Information Officers, Chief Medical Information Officers, Chief Medical Officers, Chief Nursing Officers, Chief Wellbeing Officers, and Chief Wellness Officers.

The secondary audience is healthcare workers. These are clinical care/patient-facing teams in hospital systems, including physicians, nurses, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, residents and fellows, and patient care technicians.

While the campaign focuses on patient-facing healthcare workers in hospitals, organizational changes will also benefit non-clinical healthcare workers.

Goals

1. Engage hospital leaders to revise existing or implement new evidence-informed operational policies that reduce burnout and improve professional wellbeing of hospital staff.
2. Remove barriers and reduce the perceived stigma that prevent healthcare workers from seeking mental health-related services and support.
3. Reduce burnout and improve the professional wellbeing of healthcare workers in hospital settings.

Campaign development

The Impact Wellbeing campaign was developed from a robust formative research process, including:

• Background research on technological solutions and evidence-based interventions to address healthcare worker mental health.
• Collaborative briefing sessions with healthcare organizations, labor unions, researchers, and non-profit organizations to gather input on audience targets, overall landscape knowledge, and employer best practices.
• An environmental scan of existing communication campaigns and interventions that promote wellbeing among healthcare workers.
• In-depth interviews with healthcare workers and hospital leaders to understand knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs and test draft messages.
• Online bulletin boards with hospital leaders and healthcare workers to test creative concepts and assess communication preferences.

Partners

Impact Wellbeing was developed by NIOSH in collaboration with the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes' Foundation to support hospital leaders, and in turn their healthcare workforce, to improve professional wellbeing. NIOSH also met with nearly two dozen organizations - federal agencies, unions, professional organizations, healthcare systems, and others.

Campaign funding

The Impact Wellbeing campaign is made possible by the American Rescue Plan of 2021. It also builds on momentum from the passage of the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act.6 The Act funds efforts to prevent mental and behavioral health conditions and increase access to evidence-based treatment for healthcare workers.

Measuring success

NIOSH will evaluate the Impact Wellbeing campaign by conducting surveys with hospital leaders and healthcare workers. We also collect data on campaign performance metrics.

NIOSH will continue to collect ongoing input from hospital leaders and healthcare workers to inform campaign resources moving forward.