Prioritize nurses, midwives and paramedics psychological health to strengthen the NHS culture

A focus on the psychological well-being of nurses, midwives, and paramedics is an important catalyst to revitalize the NHS, say researchers at the University of Surrey. The team are launching a guide targeted at helping the three professions thrive at work and deliver high-quality care to patients, often in challenging and emotionally taxing circumstances.

The guide, entitled Delivering Health care: A Complex Balancing Act—a Guide to Understanding and Tackling Psychological Ill-health in Nurses, Midwives and Paramedics is the result of a comprehensive National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) funded study conducted in 2020-2022 to understand why psychological ill-health persists despite interventions to prevent it.

The guide makes six recommendations targeted at Well-being Guardians (leaders looking to improve staff well-being at work and NHS culture), executive boards, senior leaders, team managers and anyone working to improve the psychological health of nurses, midwives and paramedics. The recommendations are:

• Prioritize essential needs: Make sure the basic needs of staff, like access to food, rest areas, and appropriate work resources, are met. This forms the foundation for effective work.
• Take a systems approach to staff support and share good practice: Ensure psychological health is not the responsibility of individuals alone—it is a collective endeavor. Review and develop support systems, sharing good practices and addressing gaps in staff support. Extend support programs, such as the Practitioner Health Program, beyond doctors and dentists. Ensure Well-being Guardians have sufficient resources.
• Normalize and anticipate psychological health management: Acknowledge that stress and burnout are inevitable in health care. Implement strategies for early discussions about psychological health (including with students) and develop long-term plans to manage and mitigate these risks.
• Give equal emphasis to psychological and physical harm: Focus on psychological health needs and preventing harm, not only the risk of physical injury. Run risk assessments for psychological well-being similar to those for physical safety.
• Nurture compassionate leaders: Invest in future leaders with a focus on compassionate, inclusive leadership. Provide support and training for new leaders and integrate leadership skills development from the beginning by integrating them into courses for students joining the professions.
• Foster learning over blame culture: Encourage a culture where staff can speak up about issues without fear of blame or punishment. Develop and change the organizational culture to support psychological safety and collective accountability and address unprofessional behaviors.

Professor Jill Maben OBE, a nurse and social scientist and co-lead author of the guide and Professor of Health Services Research and Nursing at the University of Surrey, said,

"Health care work is emotionally complex and takes its toll, with stress and burnout rife. Improving the psychological well-being of nurses, midwives, and paramedics in the NHS is crucial to retaining staff and allowing them to give excellent care."

"We know there is a link between staff experiences at work and the experiences of patients and their family, friends and caregivers. Staff who are valued and looked after well are likely to stay longer and can give better care. Moreover, it's vital for ensuring the NHS's longevity and success for future generations."

"Our team is ready to work with policy makers, NHS leaders, and professionals to realize an NHS that doesn't just survive year-on-year, but one where staff can flourish over a long career."

The recommendations from the guide address five key findings/tensions from the team's research:

• Blame culture impedes staff wellness: A blame culture focusing on individual errors conflicts with a team-based approach, hindering staff psychological wellness by discouraging open communication.

• 'Serve and sacrifice' can impede staff well-being: Health care's 'serve and sacrifice' ethos, prioritizing institutional needs, leads to staff overwork and moral distress, especially amid staff shortages.

• The costs of upholding values: Discrepancies between health care's ideal values and practical realities cause staff emotional distress. Required empathy in patient care risks vicarious trauma, highlighting the need for better management of emotional labor.
• Fragmented interventions and chronic stress: Current interventions, often individual-focused and fragmented, fail to comprehensively address systemic issues and chronic stressors in health care.
• The challenges in designing interventions to work optimally with diverse staff: Designing effective, diverse staff interventions is complex. The balance between mandatory and voluntary programs and the timing and nature of interventions often limit their effectiveness.

Professor Cath Taylor, an organizational psychologist, co-lead author of the guide, and Professor of Health care Workforce Organization and Well-being at the University of Surrey, said,

"Our message to nurses, midwives and paramedics is to remember that if your health is affected when facing psychological challenges at work, it is not a personal failing but a reflection of the intense environment that you are trying to navigate.

"Prioritize your well-being, accept help from colleagues, family, and friends, and be adaptive to your changing support needs throughout your career. Resilience isn't a solo journey or responsibility; it thrives on collective care, good working conditions, and proactive support."

The guide will be formally launched at a free webinar on Thursday 7 December, 10.30 am until 12.30 pm. You can register for the event or find out more information by visiting the webinar's website.

Provided by University of Surrey