Executive Leadership and Physician Well-being: Nine Organizational Strategies to Promote Engagement and Reduce Burnout

Shanafelt, T. D., & Noseworthy, J. H. (2017). Executive Leadership and Physician Well-being: Nine Organizational Strategies to Promote Engagement and Reduce Burnout. Mayo Clin Proc, 92(1), 129-146.

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This paper should be required reading for anyone in healthcare. The authors discuss lessons-learned at the Mayo Clinic using evidence dating back to mid-2000s.

There are several key points:

  1. wellness is the joint responsibility of individuals AND their health system. Most focus heavily on the individual and fail to consider system-wide or national interventions.

  2. there is a strong business case for health systems focusing on physician wellness.

  3. wellness is a key metric of patient quality and safety and should be measured alongside other mission-critical metrics.

  4. leaders unable to foster wellness in their followers should be replaced.