4. improve work conditions for staff
burnout among health-care workers, and the conditions that contribute to it, need to be addressed, experts say.
grinspun, of the rnao, said nurses face “brutal” workloads, and having more staff is key to fixing the problem. mental health support, mentorship and good leadership will in turn aid retention, she added, as nurses contend with nearly three years of pandemic exhaustion.
“having the support is helpful at all times, even more so during this time,” she said.
sriharan, a health systems leadership expert at the university of toronto, said mental health resources for burnt-out workers will only be “band-aid solutions” if the environment that caused the problem doesn’t also change.
it’s important to speak with health-care workers to understand what’s causing burnout in each organization and make appropriate changes, she said.
5. implement a system to track, prevent staff shortages
experts say a national system is also needed to track staffing levels at different health-care institutions to ensure that there is a balanced distribution of the workforce and prevent service disruptions.
“in certain areas, we have a lot of people and then a lot more areas, we don’t have the optimum capacity, so we don’t have enough primary care physicians, we don’t have nurses who can function at the level that we need service,” said sriharan, of the university of toronto’s institute of health policy, management & evaluation.