Decreasing healthcare worker burnout

Creating a new support system to improve well-being for some of society’s most critical people: clinicians and caregivers.

USC Launched 2022

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Impact

The Thrive Study sets out to understand the factors that contribute to burnout and dissatisfaction among healthcare workers at Keck Medicine of USC, so we can develop new systems and approaches to help them thrive in their roles. Better support systems could lead to healthcare workers being sharper and more efficient in their daily roles, enabling them to see more patients in a day, or even getting some time back to take care of themselves.

46 % of health workers reported feeling burnout

Challenge

Burnout is pushing healthcare workers to the brink. More than half report symptoms like exhaustion, depression, and anxiety—driving many to leave the field altogether. And when our healthcare workers can’t care for themselves, they struggle to care for us, too. We are working to build improved systems that allow healthcare workers to prioritize their own well-being and sustain their resilience.

Our Plan

Starting at Keck Medicine of USC, we’re testing how tech and new support strategies can reduce stress, improve workplace operations, and boost well-being. The goal is twofold: show up for caregivers at Keck now, and create concrete plans that hospitals nationwide can use to keep their workforce—and patient care—strong.

Project Goals

Help caregivers practice self-care

Keck’s well-being team is teaching caregivers practical ways to manage stress, ease anxiety and depression, and improve their overall health.

Streamline patient records

These sessions will show care providers how they can optimize the Electronic Health Record (EHR) system more efficiently to lighten the daily workload for the entire care team, and even free up more time.

Performance improvement

We’ll seek to understand the daily challenges healthcare workers face that influence burnout, work satisfaction, and retention, then make recommendations for ways to make improvements.

Approach

We’re learning the pain points in the day-to-day work for clinicians so we can transform the healthcare system to reduce burnout and help healthcare workers thrive–for themselves and their patients.

Survey

Qualitative insights

Quantitative analysis

What Thrive Participants Had to Say

“I want to learn and contribute to burnout prevention in whatever way I can. We are all incredibly busy, but my participation was worth the time commitment.”
Chelsea Stone, DO, MA

“ [Thrive] exceeded my expectations. I have much smoother, clinical notetaking. I think that I can get to bed at least an hour earlier.
Nasrin Esnaashari, CCRN, CNS, NP-C, DNP

“By participating, I hoped to contribute to a better understanding of the factors that lead to burnout and to develop strategies that support… resilience of [healthcare workers].”
Conner Olsen, MD