Workforce Resilience
The Bassett Healthcare Network strives to improve the health of our patients and the well-being of our communities. In order to provide the highest quality healthcare, we need to support the well-being of the entire healthcare team.
The healthcare environment is progressively more complex and stressful, from meeting regulatory requirements to working with the electronic medical record, to managing increasingly complex medical care and changing patient expectations, to adapting and innovating for the safe care for patients, staff, and the community in novel situations. Caring for and serving rural populations with high healthcare disparities presents additional unique challenges including large geographic areas, limited availability of qualified personnel and the geographic, social/collegial and educational isolation of professional staff. These challenges compound other social determinants of health typical of more urban high healthcare disparity areas. Given the populations’ need for care, preventing burnout and retaining a healthy healthcare workforce is of paramount importance.
The Workforce Resilience Program at the Bassett Research Institute works in collaboration with the Center for Evaluating Rural Interventions (CERI), the Center for Biostatistics, the Bassett Healthcare administration, Operational Excellence team, and the Department of Medical Education to assess the problem of burnout within Bassett Healthcare and to develop interventions to improve workforce health, resiliency and engagement. Led by Dr. Caroline Gomez-Di Cesare, the Workforce Resilience Program utilizes validated internal and external tools to identify priority focus areas. By using available literature to identify evidence-based high value interventions, collaborating with other institutions and soliciting employee feedback, we design, implement and study multiple organizational approaches to improve workforce health, resiliency and engagement.
Preventing Clinician Burnout in Central NY
Clinician Peer Support Program of Central New York (CPSP-CNY)
Thanks to a three-year grant from the NYS Health Foundation (2020 – 2023), we have developed a collaborative peer-support network between the Bassett Healthcare Network, Upstate Medical University, Mohawk Valley Health System, Oneida Health, and Auburn Community Hospital to provide peer-support to clinicians (physicians, nurses, advanced practice clinicians, behavioral health clinicians, residents, and respiratory therapists). By supporting clinicians during times of high stress and vulnerability, peer support is effective in reducing distress and burnout. Outreach from a trained peer supporter during stressful times can help clinicians diminish unhelpful emotions that arise from the stressful circumstance. CPSP–CNY enhances anonymity by connecting clinicians with peer supporters from our partner organizations, outside of your home institution. The grant’s goal is to promote clinician wellbeing, and in so doing, promote better patient care. Healthier clinicians have greater capacity to engage patients to achieve better patient care & outcomes. Please click here to visit the CPSP-CNY page for program details.
If you would like to learn more or have questions or comments to share, please contact:
- Caroline Gomez-DiCesare, MD
Phone: (607) 547-3371
Address: Health Services Research Division
Bassett Healthcare Network Research Institute
One Atwell Road, Fieldstone Building, 5th Floor
Cooperstown, NY 13326