💡 What’s Happening?
Stressed doctors, nurses and health providers may draw crowds for a tense episode of Grey’s Anatomy or The Pitt, but for the thousands of hospital care providers who have left the workforce because of burnout, the reality of stressful working conditions has far-reaching consequences.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, workforce shortages, workplace violence and trauma, higher-acuity patients, pressure to take on cost-cutting measures and overwhelming workloads have contributed to record levels of burnout among healthcare providers. Hospitals are doing their best to improve wellbeing among employees – but alleviating key sources of stress requires more than what a workplace can offer.
“Experts said while burnout and staffing shortages were not new, the scale of the current crisis was unprecedented. ‘Healthcare is really at a critical juncture,’ said Adele Webb, a nurse with more than 40 years of experience, who reviewed the findings. ‘In my experience, it is worse than it’s ever been. We are losing more staff than we have ever lost. Jobs are harder, patients are older and more chronically ill. We do not have enough staff.’”
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“‘There’s fatigue. There’s trauma. There are the work factors of what it takes to be an individual in health care,’ said Dr. Jennifer Wimberly, medical director of clinical ethics and resiliency at Parkland. ‘We take care of such wonderfully complex and vulnerable individuals within our community that it comes with this commitment and this devotion.’”
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💢 Stress Factor
Healthcare workers regularly face emotionally demanding situations. They care for critically ill patients, support families through life-changing decisions and navigate healthcare worker shortages that often require them to do more with less. Over time, this constant pressure can contribute to anxiety, depression, emotional exhaustion and disengagement. Many kinds of providers also face the risk of workplace violence from patients and visitors – a problem THA has championed several bills, such as SB 240 (88R), SB 840 (88R) and HB 2854 (89R) to curtail. Even when incidents do not result in physical harm, the threat alone can create lasting anxiety and make some workers reconsider their future in healthcare.
Healthcare professionals also often experience what experts call “compassion fatigue” – the emotional exhaustion that can result from continuously caring for others through illness, trauma and loss. Combined with heavy workloads and concerns about personal safety, these pressures can make it difficult for workers to remain in the profession long-term.
“Speaking from her own experience working in the clinical mental health field, [Dr. Chavez-Palacios] says that when you’re working with individuals who are survivors of trauma or adverse childhood experiences, it’s very difficult not to allow it to affect you on an emotional level. ‘And so we do have to kind of keep our emotional guard up,’ she says. ‘It gets tiresome to have to keep up that brave front. It’s that vicarious or secondary trauma that we get very tired from.’”
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center: Burnout and Compassion Fatigue: Health and Human Services
🎲 A Damaging Domino Effect
When experienced healthcare professionals leave the workforce, hospitals lose institutional knowledge and mentorship capacity. Replacing those workers can take months or even years, particularly in specialized roles where qualified candidates are already in short supply.
The result is a cycle that can be difficult to break. Shortages increase workloads, heavier workloads contribute to burnout, and burnout can drive more workers to quit, leaving a lasting impact to access and the people in their communities.
The issue also carries significant economic implications. Hospitals are often among the largest employers in their communities, particularly in rural areas. Recruiting, training and retaining healthcare professionals supports local jobs, strengthens regional economies and helps ensure residents can receive care close to home.
As Texas continues to grow, maintaining a strong healthcare workforce will be essential to meeting future healthcare needs and supporting an essential economic driver.
“Patients, not only with COVID-19 but with any health condition, acutely realized that health care worker burnout affects everyone because the well-being of health care workers is “essential for safe, high-quality patient care.” Furthermore, the public trust that their health care will be available, safe, and of high quality. This mutual agreement and understanding – a social contract – in which patients grant trust in health care workers to fulfill their roles as healers was disrupted during the pandemic.”
National Academy of Medicine: A Path to Improved Health Care Worker Well-Being: Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic
“On top of that [cost barrier], provider shortages and long wait times are pushing people toward emergency rooms, which are the most costly part of the system. When primary care isn’t accessible or affordable, ERs become the default, and that puts even more pressure on the entire healthcare network.”
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⭐ Healthcare providers need care, too. Burnout and shortages tax hospital caregivers. Supporting the people who provide care is critical to ensuring patients can receive the care they need, when and where they need it.
📖 Learn More
How Are Texas Hospitals Approaching Demand in the Healthcare Workforce?
THA-backed bills from past sessions:
- HB 2854 (89R): The Pokuaa-Flowers Act, relating to the required approval of certain hospital visits as a condition of release on parole or to mandatory supervision for certain releasees and to the hospital’s liability for damages resulting from those visits.
- SB 240 (88R): relating to workplace violence prevention in certain health facilities
- SB 840 (88R): relating to increasing the criminal penalty for assault of certain hospital personnel.
- SB 25 (88R): relating to support for nursing-related postsecondary education, including scholarships to nursing students, loan repayment assistance to nurses and nursing faculty, and grants to nursing education programs.
