Becker's Hospital Review

34 CMO / CARE DELIVERY Duke Health's 'bite-sized' interventions for well-being By Kristin Kuchno S ince the program first launched more than a decade ago, 800 healthcare workers at Durham, N.C.-based Duke University Health System and 17,000 nationwide have been trained as well-being ambassadors. e virtual and in-person training sessions, led by the Duke Center for the Advancement of Well-being Science, provide trainees with "bite-sized" intervention tactics to boost well-being, along with the research and source behind it. ese are simple things that have a significant and enduring effect on one's well-being, Bryan Sexton, PhD, director of the well-being science center, told Becker's. e activities can be done for just a few minutes and provide long-term benefits, he said. "What we found over time is that you can't just go in and give a group of burned-out healthcare workers a complicated, 10-step plan," he said, highlighting the significance of the short tactics. Tapping into positive emotions Many of the interventions focus on enhancing various positive emotions to recover from an emotional "heaviness," Dr. Sexton said. One of the more popular interventions focuses on gratitude, an emotion that is relatively easy to access no matter which level of well- being one is starting at. Awe, wonder and inspiration are other emotions that help one to bounce back and recover. Humor and hope are more difficult to access, Dr. Sexton said. Aer completing the training, healthcare workers share their biggest takeaways with colleagues, such as their personal experience using a given tool and how long it takes to complete, he said. "at helps the well-being ambassadors to be that light in the darkness," Dr. Sexton said. "e intent is that during training, you use it yourself so that you can speak from experience when sharing it." Nationwide reach e training started in 2009 as an offshoot of Duke's patient safety officer training. Since the sessions became offered virtually, access across the country has increased. Now, instead of completing hours of training in person, the courses can also be completed virtually at one's own pace. "We can put a lot of people in one Zoom for one training, and hit all kinds of regions of the country," Dr. Sexton said. is includes those at rural hospitals, large teaching hospitals and primary care facilities, he said. Participants can also earn continuing education credits, which are international, he said. e well-being movement in healthcare Dr. Sexton compared the well-being movement to the patient-safety movement in the late 1990s and the early 2000s. At that time, health systems lacked patient-safety officers and budgets dedicated to patient safety, he said. CHS' nurse retention rate at 'highest level in a decade,' says CEO By Alan Condon F ranklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems has hired almost 3,000 registered nurses during the first half of 2024 and its nurse retention rate is "very strong at its highest level in a decade," CEO Tim Hingtgen said July 25 during the company's second-quarter earnings call. In 2023, CHS added more than 1,000 bedside nurses as part of its centralized clinical recruitment program, which has expanded to include allied health positions in areas including imaging, pharmacy, lab, respiratory and surgical services. "Across these positions, hiring is up by more than 14% year-over-year," Mr. Hingtgen said. "Other facets of cost management have been an area of strength this year with contract labor, supplies and other expenses trending down in the second quarter. Innovative solutions to improve care delivery in our business operations are another area of specific focus." The 71-hospital system is also focused on graduating and recruiting nurses through its education partnership, which is expected to graduate 1,000 new nurses a year. CHS' contract labor costs were down about $3 million sequentially to $45 million and down $29 million (39%) from $74 million in the second quarter of 2023. "This decrease in contract labor was slightly better than our expectation of contract labor remaining at approximately $50 million per quarter for the year," CFO Kevin Hammons said. "We are pleased with the continued progress that reflects our recruitment and retention efforts along with lower hourly rates for contracted nurses." CHS reported a $13 million net loss in the second quarter, compared to a $38 million net loss during the second quarter of last year. n

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