Implementation of the Synergy Tool: A Potential Intervention to Relieve Health Care Worker Burnout

Abstract

(1) Background: Healthcare workers experienced rising burnout rates during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. A practice-academic collaboration between health services researchers and the surgical services program of a Canadian tertiary-care urban hospital was used to develop, implement and evaluate a potential burnout intervention, the Synergy tool. (2) Methods: Using participatory action research methods, this project involved four key phases: (I) an environmental scan and a baseline survey assessment, (II), a workshop, (III) Synergy tool implementation and (IV) a staffing plan workshop. A follow-up survey to evaluate the impact of Synergy tool use on healthcare worker burnout will be completed in 2023. (3) Results: A baseline survey assessment indicated high to severe levels of personal and work-related burnout prior to project initiation. During the project phases, there was high staff engagement with Synergy tool use to create patient care needs profiles and staffing recommendations. (4) Conclusions: As in previous research with the Synergy tool, this patient needs assessment approach is an efficient and effective way to engage direct care providers in identifying and scoring acuity and dependency needs for their specific patient populations. The Synergy tool approach to assessing patient needs holds promise as a means to engage direct care providers and to give them greater control over their practice—potentially serving as a buffer against burnout.

A Mixed Methods Study to Implement the Synergy Tool and Evaluate Its Impact on Long-Term Care Residents

“…The generic Synergy tool consists of eight patient characteristics [20,24]. There are five acuity characteristics-complexity, vulnerability, resilience, stability, and predictability-and three dependency characteristics that include resource availability and capacity to make decisions and perform activities of daily living [23,24].…”

“…Psychometric evaluation of the Synergy tool for acute care and specialty settings was carried out in the US where the tool was widely adopted over the last 20 years [19]. Subsequently, the conceptual model and tool spread internationally, including in Canadian jurisdictions [20][21][22].…”

“…Research with the Synergy tool has demonstrated its capacity to facilitate safe staffing and workload management decisions in real-time by using health professionals' assessments of patients' acuity and dependency needs. The ultimate purpose of the Synergy tool is to enhance the quality and safety of care delivery by creating a better 'fit' between staffing assignments and patient needs [20,21,23,24]. Research evidence suggests that Synergy tool use leads to the optimization of existing health human resources [20,21,23], positive care delivery experiences and outcomes for patients and providers, and reduced costs in healthcare delivery [22,23].…”

“…The ultimate purpose of the Synergy tool is to enhance the quality and safety of care delivery by creating a better 'fit' between staffing assignments and patient needs [20,21,23,24]. Research evidence suggests that Synergy tool use leads to the optimization of existing health human resources [20,21,23], positive care delivery experiences and outcomes for patients and providers, and reduced costs in healthcare delivery [22,23]. The majority of research with the Synergy tool has been in acute care, emergency services and specialty and ambulatory care programs [20][21][22][23][25][26][27][28][29].…”

“…Research evidence suggests that Synergy tool use leads to the optimization of existing health human resources [20,21,23], positive care delivery experiences and outcomes for patients and providers, and reduced costs in healthcare delivery [22,23]. The majority of research with the Synergy tool has been in acute care, emergency services and specialty and ambulatory care programs [20][21][22][23][25][26][27][28][29]. To our knowledge, research with the Synergy tool has not been conducted in the LTC sector.…”