Workplace wellbeing in an urban emergency department in Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract

Objectives: Staff wellbeing is important for individuals and considered integral to the development and maintenance of high performing health systems. Unless baseline parameters of wellbeing are known, the effects of any interventions to improve staff wellbeing will remain uncertain. By clarifying staff perceptions and objective measures of important factors related to wellbeing, our primary goal was to assess the baseline wellbeing of staff in our central city ED. Methods: A survey template, the WoWe@AED (Workplace Wellbeing at the Adult Emergency Department) was developed from several sources. Burnout was measured using the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory. Inclusion in the survey required that participants worked in our ED, all staff groups were eligible. The electronic survey was conducted between 22 January and 5 February 2018. Quantitative and qualitative data were analysed. Results: Two hundred and seventy (71.1%) of 380 potential participants participated. All staff groups were represented. About 72.4% agreed/ strongly agreed that Adult Emergency Department was an excellent place to work, 80.7% found their work meaningful. About 42.0% felt well informed regarding important decisions. One hundred and eightythree (48.2%) out of 380 completed the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory. Overall, personal burnout was 42.1% (n = 77), work-related burnout was 35% (n = 64) and clientrelated burnout was 27.9% (n = 51). Females were significantly (<0.05) more likely to have burnout in some or all domains. Four key themes were identified: supportive teamwork and relationships; providing high quality patient care; resourcing; and workload issues. Conclusions: Baseline indices of wellbeing of the frontline staff in a central city ED have been documented. These have informed wellbeing interventions. Future measures can be compared against these data.

Need for recovery and physician well-being in emergency departments: national survey findings

“…[13,14] There are however limitations to their use, with some recent surveys reporting poor responses rates which could reflect participant views on utility or concerns over survey length. [15] Further more, diagnosing burnout once it has already occurred is arguably too late. Within busy emergency care workforces, a wellbeing tool which is easy and quick to complete and allows for early identification of impaired well-being could confer important benefit.…”

“…Burnout inventories aim to measure the incidence of occupational burnout and have been widely applied within national physician training surveys and the ED setting [13,14]. There are, however, limitations to their use, with some recent surveys reporting poor responses rates which could reflect participant views on utility or concerns over survey length [15]. Furthermore, diagnosing burnout once it has already occurred is arguably too late.…”

Emergency department workforces’ experiences and perceptions of well-being from an international perspective: a scoping review

“… 26 40 Anderson et al 26 stated the WHO definition of health and implemented both the ‘improving joy in work’ framework and SMPF framework to underpin parts of the qualitative survey in their study. Kumar et al 40 discussed how the SMPF framework underpinned the factors used to measure well-being, while the ‘improving joy at work’ framework was used to develop the qualitative survey.…”

A multidisciplinary, cross-sectional survey of burnout and wellbeing in emergency department staff during COVID-19

“…Staff wellbeing is deemed integral to the development and maintenance of a high performing healthcare system [1] . It is a shared responsibility of both organisation and practitioner to maintain staff wellness [2] .…”

“…Respiratory infectious diseases, such as SARS and MERS-CoV have been associated with severe levels of stress and an increased desire for healthcare staff to leave their workplace [7] . Without baseline parameters of burnout and wellbeing being clearly identified, the effect of interventions to improve staff wellbeing remain uncertain [1] . COVID-19 will persist for some time to come and pandemics such as this are expected to occur again.…”