Covid-19 disrupted the healthcare system and put healthcare workers across the country on the frontlines of the global pandemic that infected over 33 million Americans and took the lives of over 600 thousand Americans. Even before the pandemic, under usual working conditions, severe burnout syndrome affects as many as 33% of critical care nurses and up to 45% of critical care physicians. To proactively address the wellness of staff, last year, Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (DHS) leadership developing a wellness crisis plan, established working groups to address wellness and resiliency organizationally, and instituted Wellness Ambassadors and Wellness Guardians, full-time staff who in addition to their current responsibilities took on supporting DHS’s wellness goals and serves as a resource for staff. Despite these efforts, DHS has recognized its staff are experiencing some level of increased trauma from the pandemic, but to what extent is unclear.
It is a priority for DHS that at the enterprise-level there is an impactful, scalable, and sustainable plan in place to support organizational and staff wellness and resiliency. To build on the momentum started last year, FUSE Corps will design a comprehensive wellness plan to address the holistic health and wellbeing of DHS’s healthcare workers at all levels across the organization. FUSE will implement specific recommendations to scale wellness support and resources; identify measurable objectives to improve employee health and well-being; and empower employees with health education and lifestyle skills that enable them to achieve their best possible health and positively affect employee morale and job satisfaction.
