Emotional Intelligence at Work

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Healthcare in Crisis – July 2023

What’s happening: Healthcare workers are burning out in alarming numbers. But a successful pilot project at one of the nation’s top hospitals offers hope for a turnaround.

When a friend of mine graduated from medical school about a year ago, he couldn’t wait to get started. He got a job at a large Midwestern hospital chain in the US and started to see patients. After years of school and hundreds of thousands of dollars in student debt, he finally had his dream job. But within a couple weeks, it was clear things weren’t going as expected. His workload was too much to dedicate the time he wanted to each patient, and even still, he had to spend hours finishing notes every evening after he got home from work. Over the months, working 50 hour weeks started to take its toll. He felt stressed, exhausted, worn out. He expressed his concerns to supervisors but his concerns were brushed aside, or met with promises that were never met. About a year later, he’s experiencing full blown burnout – and he’s far from alone.

Healthcare workers are struggling. The crisis goes back years – even decades – but got considerably worse during the pandemic. In a 2015 study of nearly 7,000 doctors,54% reported symptoms of burnout – a rate already nearly double that of the general population. That was pre-pandemic! Data published recently in the peer-reviewed journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings found that nearly two thirds (63%) of physicians reported at least one symptom of burnout at the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022. Only 30% felt satisfied with their work-life balance.

Check out this infographic from Gist Healthcare:

While burnout is particularly bad in healthcare, it’s gotten worse in almost every industry all around the world since 2019. (This human energy crisis is one of the key findings of our upcoming State of the Heart report, the world’s largest study of emotional intelligence and wellbeing. It’s set to be released in September. You can sign up to receive your free copy here, or join us for a livestream on August 10 where we’ll release and analyze key findings.)

Why it matters: The burnout crisis is both a moral issue and a financial one. Burnout among physicians is indicative of an overall decline in healthcare workers’ mental health and has been linked to higher rates of alcohol abuse and suicidal ideation, according to an analysis by The New York Times. To compound the problem, a burned out physician also isn’t doing his or her best work, and as a result, burnout has been linked to increased medical errors, worse patient outcomes, and a higher cost of care. Overall, burnout costs the healthcare system $4.6 billion a year in the US alone.

How to respond: A case study from a leading hospital in Chicago shows that targeted interventions can be extraordinarily effective.The ShirleyRyan Ability Lab in Chicago is one of the nation’s top physical medicine and rehabilitation hospitals. Its new $550 million, 1.2-million-square-foot facility is the first-ever “translational” research hospital in which clinicians, scientists, innovators and technologists work together in the same space, surrounding patients, discovering new approaches and applying (or “translating”) research in real time. But its Chief Medical Officer, Dr. James Sliwa, knew that the state of the art facilities could only be used to its full potential when the doctors and nurses who fill the building are flourishing and motivated – obviously a huge challenge in healthcare. Inspired by research showing a link between emotional intelligence and reduced burnout, he was determined to get ahead of the problem and equip his medical students with the emotional skills they need to thrive. The program consisted of a 30-minute introduction and three 45-minute sessions. All participants took the Six Seconds Emotional Intelligence assessment before and after the sessions to measure efficacy. The results? A 13% increase in average emotional intelligence scores, and a significant reduction in burnout risk. If 13% seems like a modest improvement, consider this: A study at Liberty University tested students’ emotional intelligence upon starting the program – and at its conclusion years later – with no intervention, and found that emotional intelligence declined.

This is important work – maybe more important than ever. For over 3 years, wellbeing and emotional intelligence have declined as burnout has become more prevalent, all over the world. The only answer is to reinvest in our mental and emotional health – in healthcare and beyond.

Here are 3 key takeaways from this study that we can apply in our work in any context: 

1. A modest investment goes a long way. “The big takeaway is that these are measurable, learnable skills, and you can see improvement with even a modest investment of time and energy,” says Dr. Sliwa.
2. Measure what matters. In a field that still lacks credibility in many people’s minds, pre- and post assessments and analysis is a game changer.
3. Culture is critical. In this study, the older, more experienced attending physicians all participated, and showed a strong commitment to modeling emotional intelligence – fueling the program’s success.