Are You a Source of Stress for Your Team?

Those working in the health, senior living and mental health arena are beyond exhausted because of the pandemic, ever-changing Covid-19 policies, and a revolving door of mandates.  Prior to March 2020, they were already struggling with an elevated level of burnout.  But are you another source of stress for your colleagues, subordinates and managers?  Here are 3 areas to consider:

1. Are you providing lousy customer service to your colleagues, subordinates and managers? More than ever, healthcare professionals are asked to provide great customer service along with outstanding clinical outcomes.   Can you commit to treating your team members with the same courtesy you offer your patients and their caregivers?

2. Does your workplace have poor boundaries?  Work and personal lives often bleed into each other because of technology, especially now more than ever.  It’s important to remember that healthcare professionals need to recharge during their time off.  Can you commit to only contacting colleagues who are not “on call” if it’s a true emergency?

3. Do you make assumptions when a mistake is made?  When we assess a patient’s health or mental health, we ask lots of questions, so we know how to help them.  It’s important to do the same when something does not go right at work.  Sure, it could be that an employee is incompetent.  But often when there is a mistake or something does not go as planned, it’s because procedures and policies need to be revisited. Or perhaps the employee is new, particularly because of these unprecedented staffing shortages and more, better training is required.

Investing in making your teams’ lives easier right now will pay tremendous dividends in patient satisfaction and clinical outcomes.  What other strategies are you using to help reduce the stress of your health and mental health professionals on staff during this continuously difficult time?