Providing continuous high-quality care can be at odds with the wellbeing of healthcare professional workforce. Burnout and moral distress are common in ICU and other environments. Healthcare professional wellbeing is linked to effectiveness and efficiency at work impaired functioning at work.
POWER projects are supported by an unrestricted grant from the Robin DeVerteuil (RDV) Foundation.
Documentation as increasing workload. Over 6-years of this study, the volume of documentation increased by 26%, was greater in patients with more ICU interventions and included over 100 items per hour in the sickest patient groups (Manor-Shulman, JCC 2008).
Moral Distress is Common. High-levels of moral distress in healthcare professionals from three ICUs in one hospital (Larson, PCCM 2017).
Moral distress is the same in neonatal and paediatric ICU staff. In a national survey of 34 Neonatal and 16 Paediatric ICUs. Inter-individual differences were the greatest determinants of variability in moral distress (Dryden-Palmer, PCCM 2019).
Candidate interventions to enhance provider resilience and wellbeing are described and characterized as proactive and re-active interventions (Dryden-Palmer, PCCM 2018).
Conceptual model. A model of stress to explain the positive benefits of some stress in the work environment as means to challenge and enable growth of healthcare professionals. This is contrasted with the non-adaptive levels of work-related stress where provider effectiveness is compromised (Dryden-Palmer, PCCM 2018).
International collaborations. C Larson with ANZPIC confirming moral distress is present in staff of PICUs in New Zealand and Australia (submitted).
