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Collaborative Stress Management: A New Book Review

Those of you who read my first book, Better Communication for Better Care, know that stress and burnout figure prominently in my writing because, from my work in 40 states, we are experiencing a tidal wave of stress and burnout in healthcare workplaces.  As Dr. Jonathon Halbesleben, the author of Managing Stress and Preventing Workplace Burnout, wrote (p.xiii-xiv):

Stress has become something of a badge of honor in today’s society…. We are quickly realizing that people who experience stress act in ways that can be problematic for their organizations and for their own well-being.  Over the long term, what starts as a relatively minor complaint can blossom into burnout, lower performance, and even turnover and violence…. If we could help ourselves, stress would not be considered an epidemic….  The goal of this book is to put practicing administrators in a better position to address the stress of those with whom you work.

On page 108 is an interview form that contains questions to ask, including:

• What are the primary challenges you face
• How often do you face these challenges
• What do you enjoy about your job
• What suggestions do you have to make your job better

On the following page, the author writes practical guidelines for facilitating stress focus groups, such as:

• Establish ground rules (for a list of such rules, readers may consult my article on Surgeon Frustration, p. 82)
• Facilitate more than participate
• At the session wrap-up, communicate possible next steps and obtain feedback

I appreciated his answer to, “How can we sustain our work so that we don’t run into future stress-related problems?” (p.75):

• Close the loop
• Continue to reach out and make rounds at your facility
• Retain your team of stress management champions: even as your meetings become less frequent and less intense, they should continue

My only (minor) disagreement based on my experience over the past 12 years was (p.70), “Open-ended questions don’t work with physicians.”  As I wrote in Dealing with a Medical Staff in Crisis, I worked closely with the Medical Staff President to devise a survey instrument that included open-ended questions, such as:

• How would you rate your experience here?
• What is going well for you?
• How likely are you to recommend this hospital to a friend, colleague, or a family member?
• On what do you base your rating?
• What is the future of this hospital?
• What role do you see yourself playing?
• Which obstacles need to be addressed now for the hospital to thrive?
• Whom else should we interview?

Most physicians found the discussions therapeutic, an indication that someone valued their input and validation of their anger and frustration.  Momentum built and physicians who were initially too busy to participate asked why they weren’t interviewed, so I returned about a week later until we had more than 25 physicians’ comments in our database.

Dealing with stress and confronting workplace burnout allow leaders to have an engaged workforce, committed to their organization’s goals and mission as manifested by the:

• vigor that they bring to their jobs
• dedication to advancing the organization’s mission
• absorption in their work, the flow state

Dr. Halbesleben concludes by advising healthcare organizations to acknowledge and deal with stress and burnout:

You have nothing to lose.  You have only to gain a productive, safe organization with engaged employees who stay with you for the long haul- a challenging goal, but one worth pursuing.

I recommend this book because of its practical approach to acknowledge and deal with the causes of stress and burnout. 

What is the situation where you work?

• Are you experiencing an epidemic of stress and burnout
• If so, how are you and your organization dealing with it
• What measures are working

As always, I welcome your input to improve healthcare collaboration.

Kenneth H. Cohn

© 2010, all rights reserved

Disclosure:

I have a material connection because I received a review copy that I can keep for consideration in preparing to write this content.

Posted in Building on Success

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