Implementation of the Synergy Tool: A Potential Intervention to Relieve Health Care Worker Burnout.

(1) Background: Healthcare workers experienced rising burnout rates during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. A practice-academic collaboration between health services researchers and the surgical services program of a Canadian tertiary-care urban hospital was used to develop, implement and evaluate a potential burnout intervention, the Synergy tool. (2) Methods: Using participatory action research methods, this project involved four key phases: (I) an environmental scan and a baseline survey assessment, (II), a workshop, (III) Synergy tool implementation and (IV) a staffing plan workshop. A follow-up survey to evaluate the impact of Synergy tool use on healthcare worker burnout will be completed in 2023. (3) Results: A baseline survey assessment indicated high to severe levels of personal and work-related burnout prior to project initiation. During the project phases, there was high staff engagement with Synergy tool use to create patient care needs profiles and staffing recommendations. (4) Conclusions: As in previous research with the Synergy tool, this patient needs assessment approach is an efficient and effective way to engage direct care providers in identifying and scoring acuity and dependency needs for their specific patient populations. The Synergy tool approach to assessing patient needs holds promise as a means to engage direct care providers and to give them greater control over their practice-potentially serving as a buffer against burnout.

Enabling innovation and sustainable improvement in person-centred healthcare during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic – a reflective account

Background: Covid -19 placed new limitations and challenges on how healthcare could be provided. To pursue person-centred care during the initial and subsequent waves of the virus, organisations needed to find quick solutions to ethically challenging clinical scenarios. Aim: This critical reflection aims to describe how practice developers, quality improvement advisors and practitioners worked together in a large healthcare provider in the North-East of Scotland. We combined the theoretical principles of person-centredness, service design, complexity and organisational learning to develop, enable and implement innovative solutions to providing person-centred care. Conclusion: Working collaboratively with colleagues, we co-designed changes to treatment escalation planning, end-of-life care and hospital visiting. We found that improvement approaches need to focus not only on processes but also on the experience of patients and staff. This balanced approach had a synergistic effect on improving effectiveness and moderating moral distress. Implications for practice: It is only possible for healthcare organisations to truly act on the needs of those using services when person-centred approaches are built into operational planning and performance management, alongside learning networks that foster innovation