Why Hospitals Need An Experiential Program To Shift Burnout Trends & Boost Employee Engagement

Why Hospitals Need An Experiential Program To Shift Burnout Trends & Boost Employee Engagement

Employee health and wellness have a tremendous impact on organizational success. By prioritizing employee well-being and investing in organization-wide programs, hospitals can create a culture that promotes health, wellbeing and community engagement. Gallup’s latest bestseller It’s the Manager shows that “67% of U.S. employees are disengaged at work, 51% say they’re actively looking for a new job or are open to one, and 47% say now is a good time to find a quality job.” For hospitals to remain competitive and attract a stable healthcare workforce, it is vital incentivize their staff beyond the current standards. That means, providing continuous employee engagement opportunities that support and prioritize employee growth and leadership are fundamental to long-term happiness.

The pandemic has exacerbated a pre-existing mental health crisis and a burnout crisis, as well as a nursing and physician shortage. Regardless of the challenges facing the healthcare industry, “Millennials and Generation Z need team leaders who can coach them, value them as individuals and employees, and help them understand and build their strengths” (source). With varying personal needs and adult learning styles, employees must have access to targeted solutions that not only span digital engagement (app subscriptions) but also provide experiences to help them grow. The ProMind Experience™ offers the ideal solution for enhancing both employee engagement and wellbeing. Equally important to an experiential program is the diversity of engagement opportunities that support staff through various teaching-learning strategies, ensuring everyone receives the attention they deserve.

What Is An Experiential Program?

An experiential program is one that facilities personal engagement with a focus on having an experience. It’s the experience that helps people learn and grow. Offering an experiential program has the opportunity to change employee attitudes, values and beliefs in a holistic way. When you get everyone involved in the process, from upper management down to the employee level, you’re supporting people to feeling connected – further building on community capacities. A strengths-based culture also helps attract and keep your star team members.

Kolb’s experiential learning theory is a well-known educational theory used in higher education. It’s foundations are at the root of The ProMind Experience™. We’ve pulled some of these experiential concepts into its coaching program for the healthcare workspace. Experiential personal growth programs such as The ProMind Experience™ puts employee engagement and retention as the focus to creating the change staff desire. People want to be healthy. People want to manage their stress. But the type of work they do requires a unique and tailored approach. The ProMind Experiences is the leading workplace health program that’s built on creating sustainable change, through having an experience.

Psychologist David Kolb

Following the Chinese proverb, ”I hear, and I forget. I see, and I remember. I do, and I understand” Psychologist David Kolb, a pioneer in experiential learning, works on a four-stage cycle of learning. Kolb identifies the following four components necessary for one to experience personal growth.

Concrete experience – Active involvement in the experience.
Reflective observations – Analyzing the experience
Abstract conceptualization – Drawing conclusions and evaluating what trainees have grasped.
Active experimentation – Implementing what has been learned.

All of these are included in our workplace wellness program, The ProMind Experience™.

Psychologist David Kolb
Source: Queens University.

Why Our Model Is Different

The ProMind Experience™ is a pro-active organization-wide approach to employee health and recognition is different from the norm. We align to an organization-wide investment approach to prevent suffering in silence, and train everyone’s mindset at the same time. It’s commonly known that health practitioners often avoid taking care of themselves due to the time-constraints of their jobs. They also underestimate their suffering, and don’t feel that one-on-one therapy or counselling services are what they need.

– The ProMind Experience™ allows staff to apply a 5-Step System For Peak Performance across 6 main areas of their life.
– We have a service model designed to be proactive – not reactive.
– The ProMind Experience is aligned to the unique needs of health practitioners.
– A community development approach supports a wider range of interventions and client touch-points.
– An organization-wide initiative supports earlier detection & prevents institutional waste of employee recognition budgets.

Personal Growth & Leadership As Democratic Rights

At The ProMind Experience™ we believe that being able to take time-out to be healthy is a democratic right. A personal development program like The ProMind Experience™ offers an opportunity to revolutionize how you engage your employees to tap-in to their best selves. In order to develop leadership, your health practitioners require a well-rounded approach to employee health and wellbeing. Incorporating elements like personal reflection, and and an opportunity to take a pause from the everyday grind are no longer nice-to-do but vitally important to the values of today’s workforce.

In Gallup’s The Manager, research found that “employees demand a job that values their strengths and contributions, and that allows them to do what they do best every single day”. Leadership styles have changed from the days of collecting your pay-check to focusing on one’s purpose, and strengths. While I do believe stress-management in-services are great adjuncts to an occupational health program, the evidence is telling us that staff want more than just “employee assistance benefits”. Studies show that offering repeated opportunities for the practice of new information and strategies vastly improves learning, strengths, and skill-building – are of which are considered in The ProMind Experience™.

ROI & Sustainability

A more engaged workforce will align better with the hospital’s mission vision.This will provide a better experience for new and returning patients. While this does lead to increased revenue, this component is hard to measure. Without that nurse, the bed could be closed. Therefore, we will focus the ROI calculations on the associated cost savings.

A Gallup study estimated that “the cost of employee disengagement is $1 trillion a year in lost productivity in the U.S. alone. The study also showed that 26% of workers ranked recognition in the top three factors for staying in their job and about 20% pointed to a lack of recognition as the main reason they’d consider leaving for a new job. An effective recognition program can boost productivity, while reducing turnover, absenteeism and on-boarding costs” (source). High nurse turnover is one of the largest costs to hospitals. It includes the cost of re-hiring, training, preceptorship periods, loss of clinical expertise, and higher workloads for other staff while the position is vacant. Voluntary turnover is often due to a burnt-out disengaged health workforce, and in search of higher paying travel nursing jobs that offer more incentives, more empowering work, and a better culture of recognition.

The Path Forward

As The ProMind Experience™ prepares to scale, our dedicated team is on a journey that’s true and authentic to creating a more supportive and sustainable environment for health practitioners. Each of us holds a personal stake in The ProMind Experience™’s Mission; to get off the stressed-out treadmill in 7 weeks or less. Inside of this experiential program, your workplace learns the tools and strategies to build a life of peace, joy and happiness.

I want to help you reach your organizational goals and grow. There’s always a gap between where you are and where you want to be. If you’re interested in evaluating that gap so you can starting building better (team) habits, and shifting your mindset, connect with me @ info@thepromindexperience.com

Personal Development As Democratic Rights

At Satori, we believe that being able to take time out for oneself to be healthy is a democratic right. A personal development program like Satori’s The ProMind Experience offers an opportunity to revolutionize how you engage your employees within themselves. In order to develop leaders from within, they require a well-rounded approach to personal reflection, personal wellbeing and an opportunity to take a pause from the everyday grind. While I do believe stress-management in-services are great adjuncts to an occupational health program, the evidence is telling us that staff want more benefits.  Studies show that offering repeated opportunities for the practice of new information and strategies vastly improves learning and skill-building. This applies to both, in the quantity of what’s learned and the quality of the application – both of which are considered in The ProMind Experience.

If you want to dig into Kolb’s biography, check it out here.