Ten Principles to Advance Occupational Well-being in Health Care Organizations

Abstract

The high prevalence of occupational distress in health care workers and its implications for quality of care are now widely recognized by health care organizations. While many have taken authentic steps to address this problem, a number of factors make effective organizational interventions challenging. The unique structure of each organization and practice group requires that the design of improvement efforts be tailored to fit each organization. Due to a desire to be evidence-based, many organizations also mistakenly begin by selecting and implementing a collection of tactics reported as effective without first developing a holistic organizational strategy to inform which tactics are most appropriate for their organization. In addition, different specialty disciplines (eg, primary care, radiology, surgery) and employee types (eg, pharmacist, social worker, physical therapist, administrative leader) face different issues and have different needs, necessitating a principle-driven approach that can be applied broadly but also tailored to meet the specific needs of diverse groups. Here, we describe 10 foundational principles that can be adapted to meet the needs of diverse organizations. These principles can be applied to foster occupational well-being for both clinical and nonclinical health care workers and provide a framework to meet the distinct and varied needs of different organizations and work units.