Clinician Resilience and Well-being - National Academy of Medicine

Clinician well-being is essential for safe, high-quality patient care.

However, clinicians of all kinds, across all specialties and care settings, are experiencing alarming rates of burnout. Among the most telling of statistics, more than 50 percent of U.S. physicians report significant symptoms. Burnout is a syndrome characterized by a high degree of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization (i.e., cynicism), and a low sense of personal accomplishment at work.

Clinician burnout can have serious, wide-ranging consequences, from reduced job performance and high turnover rates to—in the most extreme cases—medical error and clinician suicide. On the other hand, clinician well-being supports improved patient-clinician relationships, a high-functioning care team, and an engaged and effective workforce. In other words, when we invest in clinician well-being, everyone wins.

Supporting clinician well-being requires sustained attention and action at organizational, state, and national levels, as well as investment in research and information-sharing to advance evidence-based solutions.

Browse or click below to learn more about the Action Collaborative.

About the Action Collaborative
News from the Action Collaborative
Events of the Action Collaborative
Publications and Resources
Get Involved
Sponsors

In 2017, the National Academy of Medicine launched the Action Collaborative on Clinician Well-Being and Resilience, a network of more than 60 organizations committed to reversing trends in clinician burnout. The Collaborative has three goals:

Improve baseline understanding of challenges to clinician well-being;
Raise the visibility of clinician stress and burnout; and
Elevate evidence-based, multidisciplinary solutions that will improve patient care by caring for the caregiver.

The Action Collaborative is composed of five working groups that will meet over the course of two years to identify evidence-based strategies to improve clinician well-being at both the individual and systems levels. Products and activities of these four working groups include an online knowledge hub, a series of NAM Perspectives discussion papers, an all-encompassing conceptual model that reflects the domains affecting clinician well-being, and a common set of definitions.

Download our one-pager to share >>

Action Collaborative Leadership
Victor Dzau, chair
Darrell Kirch, co-chair
Thomas Nasca, co-chair

Action Collaborative Staff

Charlee Alexander, Program Officer
Ivory Clarke, Associate Program Officer
Marc Meisnere, Associate Program Officer
Mariana Zindel, Research Assistant
Imani Rickerby, Program Assistant
Sharyl Nass, Board Director

Action Collaborative Working Groups
Please click here to view members of our five working groups.

Expressions of Clinician Well-Being

The National Academy of Medicine recently called on artists of all skills and abilities to explore what clinician burnout, clinician well-being, and clinician resilience looks, feels and sounds like to people across the country. 100 pieces of artwork were selected by a panel of reviewers to be displayed in a digital gallery. Explore the digital art gallery >>

Clinician Well-Being Knowledge Hub is Live!

The Action Collaborative on Clinician Well-Being and Resilience is proud to announce the launch of the Clinician Well-Being Knowledge Hub, a comprehensive resource repository for those seeking to promote clinician well-being at their organizations and in their personal lives. Visit the knowledge hub>>

Help us share the knowledge hub by clicking here.

National Call for Commitment Statements – Over 150 Received!

Over 150 organizations have formally committed to promoting clinician well-being and combating burnout. Read the statements >>

The National Academy of Medicine is still looking for additional organizations to commit, with us, to supporting clinician well-being. Consider sharing your organization’s commitment to improving clinician well-being and reducing clinician burnout by submitting a commitment statement and becoming a network organization of the Action Collaborative on Clinician Well-Being and Resilience. To submit a commitment statement, please click here.

Establishing Clinician Well-Being as a National Priority, Meeting 3 | May 2, 2018

The third meeting of the Action Collaborative on Clinician Well-Being and Resilience was held in Washington, DC on May 2, 2018. Watch video recordings of the meeting, download presenter slides, and explore additional resources>>

View all events>>

Clinician Well-Being Knowledge Hub

The Clinician Well-Being Knowledge Hub is a comprehensive resource repository for those seeking to promote clinician well-being at their organizations and in their personal lives. The repository contains peer-reviewed research, personal stories, toolkits, presentations, blog posts and other resources that health system administrators and clinicians can use to build a better system that helps clinicians thrive.

Visit the knowledge hub>>

Validated Instruments to Assess Work-Related Dimensions of Well-Being

The Action Collaborative’s Research, Data, and Metrics Working Group has assembled a set of valid and reliable survey instruments that all clinicians, at any stage of their career, can utilize to measure burnout, well-being, and suicidal ideation. Information about these survey instruments is aggregated here>>

A Journey to Construct an All-Encompassing Conceptual Model of Factors Affecting Clinician Well-Being and Resilience

Why are so many clinicians experiencing burnout?

The answer is complex but a new discussion paper from the National Academy of Medicine aims to shed light on the issues contributing to clinician burnout and well-being.

Taking a holistic view of the external and individual factors that impact clinician well-being and burnout, the authors of this discussion paper provide a first look at a comprehensive model that highlights and illustrates the interrelated factors affecting clinician burnout on a daily basis.

Individuals and organizations can use this model to identify methods to increase well-being and decrease burnout for clinicians at any stage of their careers. Explore the discussion paper and conceptual model further>>

Care-Centered Clinician Documentation in the Digital Environment: Solutions to Alleviate Burnout

Electronic health records are not living up to their full potential.

The authors of our most recent discussion paper attest that electronic health records (EHRs) focus on supporting billing and legal documentation, and do not assist with ongoing patient care. EHRs require data in ways that disrupt clinician workflow, and consume more than half of their workday. This discussion paper analyzes how the medical community can re-engage with EHRs so that they may become flexible and comprehensive enough to serve clinicians, patients, and insurance providers alike. Read the discussion paper>>

To Care is Human

National Academy of Medicine President Victor Dzau, along with Action Collaborative Co-Chairs Darrell Kirch and Thomas Nasca, published a Perspective in the New England Journal of Medicine on the epidemic of clinician burnout and what the Action Collaborative is doing to combat this critical issue and promote clinician well-being. Read the Perspective>>

Nurse Suicide: Breaking the Silence

Although burnout, depression, and suicide in nurses are beginning to be recognized as a significant threat to our health care system, we cannot report the rate at which nurses die by suicide because this data is not accurately tracked. We also know through first-hand accounts that nurse suicide is rarely discussed and not often addressed institutionally. In our new discussion paper, the authors share their insights and the insights of those who have been personally affected by the loss of a colleague, relative, or friend in an effort to encourage formal tracking of data on nurse suicide, as well as focus attention on this critical issue. Read the discussion paper>>

Burnout Among Health Care Professionals: A Call to Explore and Address This Underrecognized Threat to Safe, High-Quality Care

The US health care system is rapidly changing in an effort to deliver better care, improve health, and lower costs while providing care for an aging population with high rates of chronic disease and co-morbidities. Among the changes affecting clinical practice are new payment and delivery approaches, electronic health records, patient portals, and publicly reported quality metrics—all of which change the landscape of how care is provided, documented, and reimbursed. Navigating these changes are health care professionals (HCPs), whose daily work is critical to the success of health care improvement. Unfortunately, as a result of these changes and resulting added pressures, many HCPs are burned out, a syndrome characterized by a high degree of emotional exhaustion and high depersonalization (i.e., cynicism), and a low sense of personal accomplishment from work. Read the discussion paper >>

Additional NAM Publications Related to Clinician Well-Being

The National Academy of Medicine has published numerous discussion paper and commentaries related to clinician well-being and clinician burnout. To view all of the publications, please click here.

We currently do not require additional formal sponsors of the collaborative, but we very much want all interested organizations to stay connected as supportive partners. You can join our efforts by becoming a Network Organization of the Action Collaborative.

Learn more about becoming a Network Organization

Thank you for your commitment to clinician well-being.