Patient Experience Week is an annual celebration of our community’s healthcare staff and the impact they have on the patient experience. There is a natural connection between clinicians’ mindsets and their patients’ care; therefore, when clinicians experience burnout and fatigue, patient care can suffer deeply as a result. In fact, research shows that there is a direct and significant correlation between physician burnout and medical error. Boosting a clinicians’ awareness of the signs of burnout and encouraging them to work through challenges with healthy behaviors can not only benefit clinicians but also enhance the patient experience.
Gobel Group’s GRACE (GRAtitude, Compassion, and Empathy) program provides tools that clinicians can utilize in order to recognize their own stresses and challenges, and to learn to work through them more effectively. GRACE was created to help healthcare professionals develop gratitude, self-compassion, and empathy within themselves, and by extension, with their patients. These skills are important not only for providing compassionate care to people experiencing significant health challenges, but also to help protect healthcare providers from experiencing burnout and caregiver fatigue. This training:
- Helps clinicians to recognize their reactions to stressors and challenges in their lives and in their work
- Cultivates mindfulness, self-compassion, empathy, and gratitude
- Reduces the overall stress clinicians feel at work, thereby decreasing burnout and increasing job satisfaction
- Improves clinicians’ relationships with patients, allowing them to deliver compassionate and empathetic care, thereby increasing HCAHPS scores
- Enhances compassionate care so that patients and families may be more motivated to express their gratitude to the foundation
- Increases clinician awareness so that when patients do express gratitude, clinicians are more equipped to acknowledge it in a meaningful way
The GRACE program has experienced early success. One organization experienced a ten-point increase in HCAHPS scores in units trained in GRACE, and significant increases in mindfulness, empathy, gratitude, and self-compassion among its clinicians. Clinicians themselves reported statistically significant decreases in stress and burnout, as well as heightened levels of knowledge, confidence, intention, understanding, and clinical relevance. Additionally, the organization’s foundation received 42 new grateful patient referrals after completing the program.
Remember to celebrate your healthcare providers and caregivers this week by showing appreciation for their attention to each and every patient’s experience.
Click here to learn more about how our GRACE program can help improve your clinicians’ and patients’ lives.
