Solutions

Burnout in Critical Care

People are at the heart of Critical Care Services.

To increase the understanding of burnout and team cohesiveness within Ontario’s critical care system, CCSO administers an annual Burnout and Assessment of Team Cohesiveness (ACE-15) Survey to critical care units. Through this survey, critical care team members are asked to complete the 1-Measure Burnout Survey to capture the ongoing impact of the pandemic recovery, as well as other Health Human Resource (HHR) factors contributing to burnout. In addition, staff are asked to complete the ACE-15 survey, which collects data on the perception of “teamness”. This survey is an important element informing CCSO’s HHR Strategy. The noted trends and results therein also support the evaluation of implemented initiatives and inform system-level policy investment and planning to contribute to improving the well-being of critical care staff. This report will detail the findings of the 2023 Burnout Survey and will comment on the baseline data collected for the ACE-15 survey that measures team cohesiveness, an important factor contributing to resilience and burnout among healthcare teams.

What Can Be Done to Support Teams Feeling Burnout?

The following practices, tools and resources are presented for use by  individuals and teams dealing with issues related to burnout.

For each resource, the level of targeted utilization (eg.  Critical Care Leaders, Unit Managers, or for Direct Care Providers) is indicated. 

The effectiveness of these tools and degree to which any individual resource may be of value will vary between individuals and teams. CCSO does not endorse any one resource or tool over another with regard to effectiveness in addressing issues of burnout. The goal is to share potential resources for consideration by critical care teams. The following list /links to resources is by no means an exhaustive collection and will evolve over time. If you are aware of, or have used, other tools, resources or practices to address issues of burnout please feel free to forward these to CCSO for consideration of including in the list below. 

If you are in crisis, talk to someone.

Crisis Services Canada

 If you are in crisis there are a number of resources available.  Most hospitals have an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) available 24/7.  There are also local, provincial, and national resources.  Nationally, Crisis Services Canada is available to you whenever you need. 

Call the 24/7 crisis line 1-833-456-4566

www.crisisservicescanada.ca

Develop Healthy Self-Care Habits

Self Care for the Care-Giver

An article that identifies 5 areas of focus to promote caregiver wellness.

Level of Intervention

  • Unit Managers
  • Direct Care Providers

Resilience Tools

The Center has a series of more than 15 evidence-based interactive online well-being tools that are intended to support busy healthcare workers.  Tools include activities for self-compassion, gratitude, sleep, and work-life balance plus many others.

Level of Intervention

  • Unit Managers
  • Direct Care Providers

Responding to Stressful Events

A guide which identifies signs of stress for care providers as well as identifying stress relieving activities.

 Level of Intervention

  • Unit Managers
  • Direct Care Providers

Self-Care for Nurses

To be able to offer the best care to patients, nurses have to make sure they’re caring for themselves. The included resources have been developed to support self-care for nurses. These resources are focused on three domains: mental well-being, physical well-being and emotional well-being.

 Level of Intervention

  • Unit Managers
  • Direct Care Providers

Self-Care Toolkit

This is a collection of tools and resources to support awareness about the state of well-being for care providers. Originally created for nurses, the resources may be helpful to anyone. It starts with an inspirational video, a quality of life assessment, handouts, links to practices, apps, and ends with opportunities for continuing education credits.  

Level of Intervention

  • Unit Managers
  • Direct Care Providers

Issues of Moral Distress

Goals of Care e-Learning Module

CCSO’s e-Learning Module guides care providers on how to have the end of life conversation with patients and families. 

Level of Intervention 

  • Unit Managers
  • Direct Care Providers

Decision Making for Escalation of Treatment

A structured framework is provided for critical care teams to support the process of decision making in end-of-life care.  

Level of Intervention 

  • Critical Care Leaders
  • Unit Managers
  • Direct Care Providers

Care at End of Life

 This document provides recommendations for effective decision-making and resources. It hopes to encourage open, clear, honest discussions with patients and families enabling improved advance care.  

 Level of Intervention  

  • Critical Care Leaders
  • Unit Managers
  • Direct Care Providers

Debriefing Tools

Tallk Clinical Debriefing

TALLK is designed to guide structured team self-debriefing after any learning event in clinical environments.  It promotes a supportive culture of learning and patient safety. 

  Level of Intervention 

  • Critical Care Leaders
  • Unit Managers
  • Direct Care Providers

Low Impact Debriefing

This 4-step process offers best practice parameters around informal debriefing.  This tool offers staff exposed to traumatic/distressing experiences a structured way to debrief or offload some of the burden they just experienced in a healthy and effective way. 

 Level of Intervention 

  • Unit Managers
  • Direct Care Providers

Debriefing Assessment for Simulation in Healthcare (DASH)

Debriefing clinical simulation experiences is increasingly understood as a crucial step in clarifying and consolidating insights and lessons from simulations. The Debriefing Assessment for Simulation in Healthcare (DASH) is designed to assist in evaluating and developing debriefing skills. 

  Level of Intervention 

  • Critical Care Leaders
  • Unit Managers
  • Direct Care Providers

Patient and Family Interactions

The Patient Tool Kit: Dealing with Family

The article identifies strategies that healthcare providers can use to show professionalism and address a patient’s or family’s concerns while managing negative behaviors and defusing potentially volatile situations.
 

Level of Intervention 

  • Unit Managers
  • Direct Care Providers

How to Deal with Patients & Families: 4 Step Action Plan

Fear can motivate a lot of difficult behaviour from family members.  The author articulates 4 steps to take when dealing with these scared and seemingly difficult individuals.

 Level of Intervention 

  • Unit Managers
  • Direct care providers

Building Supportive Teams

Team STEPPS

TeamSTEPPS Canada™ is an evidence-based teamwork system that optimizes patient care by improving communication and teamwork skills among healthcare professionals. It includes a comprehensive set of ready-to-use materials and a training curriculum to integrate teamwork principles into a variety of settings.

Level of Intervention

  • Critical Care Leaders
  • Unit Managers
  • Direct Care Providers

Amazing and Awesome Rounds

Amazing and Awesome Rounds by CanadiEM  relies on active participation of a care teams to identify behaviours and processes that lead to exceptional results.
 

Level of Intervention 

  • Critical Care Leaders
  • Unit Managers
  • Direct Care Providers

Creating a Nurse Dream Team

Teamwork is fundamental to successful nursing care. The article provides a framework for building a cohesive nursing unit.

 Level of Intervention 

  • Unit Managers

Let us know

Do you have other resources that would make a difference to addressing burnout in critical care? Let us know, so we can share them here too.

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