Our collective mission to advance the health and well-being of the people and communities we serve simply doesn’t happen or move forward without the workforce, an indispensable part of patient care and the engine that makes the entire healthcare system run. Developing, supporting and safeguarding those on the front lines is as urgent and vital a priority as anything on the agenda, if not more so—both a fundamental aspect of leadership and an ethical imperative.
Given that, it’s troubling to see statistics showing the difficulties some front-line workers are experiencing. For example, a 2023 survey of hospitals by Press Ganey found that reported assaults against nurses increased 5% from 2022 and have risen nearly 25% since 2019. Also, research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that the number of healthcare workers who reported harassment at work in 2022 more than doubled since 2018. The CDC report also noted that nearly half of healthcare workers reported often feeling burned out, up 32% in that same time span.
This intersection between workforce violence and front-line mental health can seem like a new normal—a stubborn, post-pandemic trajectory that is proving challenging to reverse. Addressing it may require new solutions, and two areas could offer fresh thinking to leaders.
Technology. Predictive analytics and AI algorithms are becoming prominent parts of healthcare organizations, and tech experts believe they can play a role in employee safety by making it easier to report, analyze, anticipate and prevent safety issues and events. Also, training with virtual reality systems may allow employees to “experience” realistic scenarios to better prepare them to respond effectively in specific situations, including harassment or violence.
In the nearer term, establishing digital reporting systems and using incident reporting software can encourage front-line workers to report events while standardizing how such events are recorded. Smart devices and wearables already are used in some hospitals to keep situations from escalating, but they also can monitor employees’ physical condition, such as their heart rate. Experts say compiling the data they generate into a dashboard that provides a real-time snapshot of how people are doing could offer great benefit in a patient-care setting.
Culture. Some of the same lessons about culture-building that help organizations thrive can also make the workforce safer. All of us strive to build a strong culture that stresses trust and respect, but the connection to workforce safety might not always be so apparent. Ensuring all of our people can feel safe at work—through ongoing education, training, collaboration and transparency—might make all the difference.
This moment offers an opportunity to recommit to safety as a core value and prioritize workforce safety within it, by doubling down on front-line mental health and well-being while strongly encouraging speaking up and reporting. Tying safety culture to a healthy organizational culture like that could go a long way to helping provide the physical and psychological safety people need.
New resources also offer guidance. This year the CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health released its Impact Wellbeing Guide to help leaders bolster professional well-being with their staff. Also, the American Hospital Association published a new issue brief, “Building a Safe Workplace and Community: Violence Mitigation in a Culture of Safety,” that examines how hospitals’ violence mitigation efforts can fit effectively into an organization’s safety strategy. Both offer key takeaways that place the workforce at the forefront of safety efforts.
Finally, this issue includes ACHE’s Ethics Self-Assessment, which provides the opportunity to reflect on your own actions regarding the workforce, among other areas. Our people are what make patient care what it is today, and reinvesting in their safety can help provide the best outcomes for all those we serve.
Deborah J. Bowen, FACHE, CAE, is president/CEO of the American College of Healthcare Executives (dbowen@ache.org).