On May 23, 2002, the U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, issued this advisory to highlight the workplace challenges facing healthcare staff every day that add stress to an already stretched thin workforce and are resulting in burnout and mass resignations.
This call to action is for every stakeholder in the U.S. health system to recognize the challenges and help identify and implement solutions to improve working environments across all health systems.
What can we do to help?
As a community, we can all play a part in helping ease the burden health workers face every day. The advisory suggests:
- Checking in with the health workers you know and learn to recognize when they need support.
- Reducing the strain on the health care system by protecting your family’s health with regular preventative care.
- Acknowledging the pressure that health workers experience and respond with patience and kindness when seeking healthcare.
As a company, Medecipher is working to address health worker burnout by transforming nurse scheduling. Our solution, FLO, uses sophisticated operations research methods that sequence shifts to align personnel with patient demand while prioritizing personnel preferences, honoring the hospital’s rules and constraints, and avoiding unpredictable schedules. By better aligning personnel with patient levels, our solution helps reduce the overburden on staff caused by inadequate staffing levels, which increases patient safety, reduces burnout, and increases staff satisfaction.