Medical careers are undoubtedly prestigious and deeply fulfilling. Every day is a new challenge, the work is versatile, the pay is competitive, and there are plenty of advancement opportunities along the way. However, this noble career also has its fair share of cons. Healthcare professions are well-known for being highly demanding, compounded by prolonged exposure to contagious illnesses.
Long, grueling work hours leave medical professionals mentally and physically exhausted. While caring for and treating patients are virtuous acts, constant work can diminish their interest in the role and reduce their productivity. A Forbes study revealed that 53% of hospital employees experience burnout and over two out of five employees are considering opting for private practice.
Ensuring proper work-life balance is essential since it can negatively affect your employees’ health, prompting them to look for other opportunities. Want to prevent this? Then read till the end as we explore practical strategies to enhance work-life balance for your medical staff.
Why Work-Life Balance is Important?
As the saying goes, ‘Fill your cup first before filling up for others.’ In healthcare, constantly caring for others is a vital part of the job. But when the work becomes tedious with no time for self-care, burnout can take over. To ensure your medical staff consistently performs their best, it’s crucial to help them achieve a balance between their professional and personal lives. This balance is essential for many reasons, such as:
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Maintaining Good Health
Burnout doesn’t only affect doctors. During the pandemic, the American Medical Association surveyed from April to December 2020 and collected 43,026 responses from 206 healthcare facilities. 50% of these respondents confirmed burnout, with nurses reporting 56%, the highest level, followed by 54.1% of other clinical staff.
Healthcare is a domain where prioritizing your wellness before others can be challenging. However, if an employee is unwell or injured, they won’t be able to perform their role as efficiently as needed. It is important to remember that one can’t improve the health of others unless they themselves are in good health. Hence, achieving a work-life balance is crucial.
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Building a Long-Lasting Career
A report by Cureus states that over half of physicians and one out of three nurses in the U.S. encounter burnout and workplace-induced stress. Emotional exhaustion is also common among healthcare workers who experience burnout on a regular basis. When your staff is constantly working in a high-pressure environment, they can lose interest in their job and wonder why they chose this career. To prevent this, it is important to ensure work-life balance, enhancing their career journey in the medical industry.
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Improving the Quality of Patient Care
Besides affecting the health and productivity of medical professionals, a lack of work-life balance also impacts patient care quality. A research by TechTarget revealed that patients treated by professionals experiencing burnout, receive care with low or satisfactory outcomes. As caregivers dedicated to enhancing patient well-being, the last thing any health organization wants is to provide services that can adversely impact patient health instead of improving it.
Practical Tips to Enhance Work-Life Balance for Medical Professionals
Achieving a balance between work and life in healthcare isn’t as unachievable as some may believe. Here are a few proven tips to aid your medical staff in tackling work-related stress better.
1. Proper Scheduling
Effective scheduling, which leads to predictable work hours, can aid in attaining a better work-life balance in a demanding industry like healthcare. As a result, medical professionals know when their shift ends, allowing them to plan their other activities better. Healthcare organizations must implement a transparent and fair scheduling policy that accommodates basic staff needs, such as adequate time off between shifts.
2. Fostering a Circle of Supportive Managers
Building a network of understanding managers is crucial to maintaining work-life balance and achieving career growth. Since healthcare settings tend to be extremely stressful, having a support system to rely on, is like a breath of fresh air. From understanding the different challenges to offering words of encouragement or advice, healthcare professionals can find solace and emotional support, cope with stress more effectively, and boost patient outcomes when they have supportive and caring managers.
3. Utilize Leaves to the Fullest
Expecting anyone to work 24×7, 365 days a year is unreasonable. Like in other professional fields, healthcare workers are also entitled to a certain number of paid leaves in a year. And what better way to relax than enjoy this time off? Organizations should encourage their medical staff to take annual time off to rejuvenate and refresh themselves. When your staff has good mental and physical health, patient care quality can be enhanced successfully. Self-care activities help medical professionals refresh their mind and return to work with renewed zeal and a better mood.
4. Transparent Communication With Seniors
An organization that encourages open communication is a sign of a positive work culture. Clear communication with supervisors is essential for achieving a healthy work-life balance in healthcare settings. Healthcare professionals are empowered and feel supported to discuss any issue impacting their professional or personal lives, thereby elevating their day-to-day performance.
This is also a benefit for supervisors and managers as they gain insights into any particular challenge the employees may be encountering and work proactively to find an effective solution. Open communication is also encouraged since supervisors can introduce improved strategies for flexible scheduling, prioritizing self-care, shift adjustments, and more, striving to create the ideal balance between work and life.
5. Defining Achievable Goals
Healthcare roles are often characterized by long hours, demanding working conditions, and high stress. Nonetheless, this shouldn’t become the norm for your medical professionals. The organization must set realistic expectations for its healthcare workers to avoid regular burnout episodes.
When the goals and targets are made achievable, your medical staff can optimize their time and energy better, ensuring both personal and professional commitments are accommodated. As a result, professionals are aware of their limitations, avoid burnout more effectively, and create a healthy work environment for themselves.
6. Ensure Your Team Isn’t Understaffed
Among the various industries currently understaffed, healthcare has been at the top for many years. Healthcare, particularly nursing, has faced chronic understaffing, resulting in nurse burnout and compromising patient care quality. A study published by Nursing Outlook found that 64.9% of medical-surgical nurses in New York and Illinois confirmed inadequate staffing, soaring to 75% during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, 54% of these nurses experienced severe burnout before the pandemic, with the number increasing to 58.9% during the crisis.
As per the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it is estimated that between 2018 and 2028, a total of over 3,70,000 new employment opportunities will be added. When your medical team is understaffed, your current employees are compelled to clock in longer hours. This not only intensifies burnout issues among your medical professionals but also diminishes the quality of patient care, jeopardizing your organization’s reputation. Thus, if you’re looking to recruit efficient nurses and other medical professionals, consider connecting with a reputable medical staffing agency offering comprehensive staffing solutions.
Final Thoughts
The real secret behind elevating patient care outcomes often lies within your team. Achieving a healthy work-life balance is a desire for everyone, including your medical staff. Let’s remember that all work and no play make Jack a dull boy. Therefore, if you want your medical staff to perform consistently, ensuring they’re not burning themselves out while caring for others is vital. Working in the healthcare field can sometimes be challenging. Still, if the strategies mentioned above are implemented, your team can have a rewarding career as well as a fulfilling personal life while continuing to overcome the challenges along the way confidently.
Med Ninjas provides expert healthcare staffing solutions tailored to your organization’s needs. With us, recruit skilled nurses, allied health professionals, physicians, or contract-to-perm candidates who offer compassionate and attentive care, improving patient outcomes. As an end-to-end medical staffing solution provider, we have been helping numerous healthcare organizations address talent shortages during high-demand situations successfully since 2015.