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Caregiver Burnout

The demands of caregiving can be overwhelming, especially if you feel that you’re in over your head or have little control over the situation. If the stress of caregiving is left unchecked, it can take a toll on your health, relationships, and state of mind—eventually leading to caregiver burnout. And when you’re burned out, it’s tough to do anything, let alone look after someone else. That’s why taking care of yourself isn’t a luxury, it’s a
necessity. There are plenty of things you can do to rein in the stress of caregiving and regain a sense of balance, joy, and hope in your life.

Free Buprenorphine X-Waiver Training

The most recent opioid law, Chapter 208 of the Acts of 2018, requires acute care hospital emergency departments to have the capacity to initiate opioid agonist treatment, including buprenorphine.

To aid hospitals in implementing this policy, Boston Medical Center Office Based Addiction Treatment Training and Technical assistance (BMC OBAT TTA) offers free addiction trainings across Massachusetts for health care and social service providers. Scheduled trainings, including buprenorphine waiver trainings, are hosted in various locations around the state.

The Drug Addiction Treatment Act of 2000 requires physicians to complete 8 hours of approved training to be eligible for a waiver, and nurse practitioners (NPs), certified nurse specialists (CNSs), certified nurse midwives (CNMs), certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs), and physician assistants (PAs) to complete 24 hours. NPs, CNSs, CNMs, CRNAs, and PAs are able to complete these 8-hour trainings and then do a supplemental free online 16-hour training to meet the 24-hour requirement.

The dates, locations, and registration links for the trainings can be found here…

IHI’s WHITE PAPER – Framework for Improving Joy in Work

With increasing demands on time, resources, and energy, in addition to poorly designed systems of daily work, it’s not surprising health care professionals are experiencing burnout at increasingly higher rates, with staff turnover rates also on the rise. Yet, joy in work is more than just the absence of burnout or an issue of individual wellness; it is a system property. It is generated (or not) by the system and occurs (or not) organization-wide. Joy in work — or lack thereof — not only impacts individual staff engagement and satisfaction, but also patient experience, quality of care, patient safety, and organizational performance.
This white paper is intended to serve as a guide for health care organizations to engage in a participative process where leaders ask colleagues at all levels of the organization, “What matters to you?” — enabling them to better understand the barriers to joy in work, and co-create meaningful, high-leverage strategies to address these issues.

The white paper describes the following:

The importance of joy in work (the “why”);
Four steps leaders can take to improve joy in work (the “how”);
The IHI Framework for Improving Joy in Work: nine critical components of a system for ensuring a joyful, engaged workforce (the “what”);
Key change ideas for improving joy in work, along with examples from organizations that helped test them; and
Measurement and assessment tools for gauging efforts to improve joy in work.

Transforming Your Workplace with Gratitude

“THANK YOU.”

We’re taught this phrase from the time we learn to talk. It’s as common as “Hello” or “How are you?” Maybe that’s why so many of us tend to dismiss it as an unnecessary gesture. So, how does this seemingly insignificant phrase have the power to change you, your employees and your business in a profoundly positive way? Actually, it’s one of the easiest things you can do to transform your work environment. And that’s what this guide is all about.

Reducing the Cost of Caring: 7 R’s for Battling Compassion Fatigue

If you work in the wellness industry, I’d like you to consider yourself part of a “helping profession”. Just like nurses, teachers, counselors, first responders or nonprofit leaders, you come to the office every day with the overall mission of helping those in need.

Sepsis Alliance

Sepsis has been named as the most expensive in-patient cost in American hospitals in 2014 averaging more than $18,000 per hospital stay. With over 1.5 million sepsis hospital stays in 2014 per year, that works out to costs of $27 billion each year. Studies investigating survival have reported slightly different numbers, but it appears that on average, approximately 30% of patients diagnosed with severe sepsis do not survive. Up to 50% of survivors suffer from post-sepsis syndrome. Until a cure for sepsis is found, early detection is the surest hope for survival and limiting disability for survivors. Read Sepsis Alliance’s Sepsis Fact Sheet for additional information.

Global Sepsis Alliance

Global Sepsis Alliance has produced a library of Sepsis Information Guides on dozens of topics. These guides are high resolution and can be printed and distributed to patients, co-workers, and other professionals.
Available guides include Life After Sepsis, Aging, Amputations, Appendicitis, C. difficile, COPD, Cellulitis, Children, Dental Infections, Diabetes, Flu, HAI, HIV/AIDS, Immune System, Kidney Stones, Liver Disease, MRSA, Meningitis, Necrotizing Fasciitis, Paralysis, Pneumonia, Pregnancy & Childbirth, Strep B, Surgery, TSS, UTIs, and other fact sheets.

Falls Prevention Awareness Week – September 22 – 28 2018

Among older adults, falls are the leading cause of injury deaths, unintentional injuries, and hospital admissions for trauma. Falls can take a serious toll on older adults’ quality of life and independence. To recognize this critical issue, at the state level, SCR 77 (D-Lowenthal) was passed in 2008 declaring the first week of Fall each year as Fall Prevention Awareness Week.

Ergonomics Program Builds on Hospital Improvement Efforts

The Center for Promotion of Health in the New England Workplace (CPH-NEW) has released an online continuing education program to help nurses prevent musculoskeletal injuries in the clinical care setting.
The new online education program, developed by CPH‐NEW occupational ergonomics experts and faculty at the Solomont School of Nursing at UMass Lowell, offers 10 essential components of an effective prevention program to reduce patient handling injuries.

This free program consists of six self-paced online modules aimed at reducing risks for work-related musculoskeletal disorders. Participants will learn to use ergonomic principles, work practice, and administrative controls to identify and reduce hazards associated with patient handling and non-patient handling tasks.
The program is intended to supplement the work that most hospitals have done to improve patient handling in an effort to protect both patients and the healthcare workforce.

Conceptual Model of Factors Affecting Clinician Well-Being and Resilience

In 1999, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released its landmark report, To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System [1], which revealed that a significant number of people die annually from medical errors. The report spurred two decades of action on the part of hospitals and health care professionals to improve patient safety. The IOM, renamed the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), is now addressing the issue of clinician well-being. The Action Collaborative on Clinician Well-Being and Resilience (the “action collaborative”) was launched in January 2017 in response to the burgeoning body of evidence that burnout is endemic and affects patient outcomes. The action collaborative has defined “clinician” and “burnout” in Box 1.