Wellbeing
A healthy healthcare workforce is essential for patient care. When the workforce is exhausted, experiencing burnout, and struggling to balance their work and personal lives, it impacts on everyone.
Patient outcomes are poorer, patient satisfaction levels are lower, and the incidence of medical errors are higher. Poorer outcomes for patients can impact on their quality of life, which in turns impacts on their personal wellbeing and that of their friends and families. Longer stays in hospitals impact on service provision and capacity, and further stresses the demands being placed on the workforce.
Poorer patient outcomes, medical errors, and low patient satisfaction impact even further on a workforce committed to care, and feeling they are not delivering their best. It increases stress, reduces job satisfaction, and ultimately results in many choosing to leave the profession. This again places even further demand on the remaining workforce as rota gaps are not filled.
The situation outlined above feeds a system where patient numbers are increasing while the workforce available to treat them is shrinking.
It is a cycle that needs to be broken.
A number of reports have consistently highlighted the issues linked to wellbeing of the medical workforce and outlined key recommendations and actions for making change.
Our College is committed to consistently calling for action to be taken to support wellbeing of the workforce, and doing all we can as a College to raise awareness and provide support to our members and all those who interact with us.
