Enhancing Team Resilience for Joy At Work and Patient Safety

Yan Yin LOW1 , Joo Ying TANG1 , Zann FOO1 , Kok Hian TAN1

1. SingHealth Duke-NUS Institute for Patient Safety & Quality (IPSQ)

 

INTRODUCTION

The impact of a burnout healthcare workforce is a growing concern. Burnout influences performance and outcome of patient care. Recognising the impact, IPSQ launched the SingHealth Resilience in Academic Medicine (RAM) survey in 2019 to understand the prevalence of burnout among its healthcare professionals in our academic healthcare system. 71.3% of survey respondents (4,310 of 6,048) had high burnout score in at least 1 burnout categories - Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization and Personal Accomplishment, as measured by The Maslach Burnout Inventory - Human Services (MBI-HSS) tool. The survey showed the need for initiatives in enhancing teams’ resilience thinking and reducing burnout. IPSQ partnered stakeholders and expertise to launch TeamTHRIVE™ , a cluster programme, in building team resilience through the use of positive psychology tools.

AIM

To establish an academic cluster programme to enhance healthcare teams’ psychological capability and capacity for team resilience through the application of Positive Psychology tools.

METHOD

A concerted approach was adopted, where IPSQ garnered healthcare professionals who are passionate in building team resilience and joy at work to co-design TeamTHRIVE™. In content development, the ADDIE model was applied. Considerations such as the need for collective inputs from cluster contributors, target audience for the 2 pilot runs, topics and scenarios to be included in the teaching sessions, measuring of learning through pre- post question, were thought through in the co-design and development phases.

The curriculum is guided by 3 TeamTHRIVE™ Tools to cultivate positive relationships: • 3 Good Things • Gratitude & • 1 Good Chat.

TeamTHRIVE™ was initiated during COVID-19 pandemic. In conducting TeamTHRIVE™ via teleconference (zoom), virtual small group discussions and activities were purposefully designed, evaluated to ensure participants are effectively engaged, with learnings acquired. Coaching component was incorporated, where an assigned coach worked with individual participant on the application of tools and practices in their work area. A resilience toolkit was also developed to provide participants with quick access to information and tools, anywhere and anytime. The programme sign-up rate and participants’ feedback, teaching faculty and session observers and extend of spread were evaluated.

RESULTS

TeamTHRIVE™ was well-received with over 400 workshops and webinar participants. 93.3% (250 of 268) workshop participants agreed that the objectives were met. 97.0% (260 of 268) (Fig.1) were satisfied with TeamTHRIVE™. Most learners demonstrated an increase in positive emotions from 55.5% to 94.4% (168 of 178) (Fig.2) after attending TeamTHRIVE™.

TeamTHRIVE™ encourages the sharing of teaching content and now offers a train-the-trainer model to help departments to train a pool of trainers. The Nursing domain and Post-Graduate Year 1 (PGY1) Residency programme have adopted and implemented TeamTHRIVE™ in their communities. It has inculcated the emphasis in positive psychology and the topic is now a key concept in IPSQ Graduate Programmes in Patient Safety & Healthcare Quality. Emergency Medicine and Residency (Fig.3) have also invited TeamTHRIVE™ to be part of their retreat in 2022 and 2023 respectively as they recognized the importance of joy at work and resilience for their teams.

In 2022, TeamTHRIVE™ was awarded the SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medicine Education Institute Golden Apple Programme Excellence Award (Fig.4). The award recognises distinctive educational programmes in SingHealth and Duke-NUS Medical School across the various healthcare professions for applying best practices in education philosophies and following a scholarly approach.

CONCLUSIONS

TeamTHRIVE™ is successful in bringing partnerships in the design, implementation and evaluation of the programme. It supports individuals and teams in enhancing resilience and brought positive emotions. The lessons learnt in designing and implementing TeamTHRIVE™ are important in the journey to build capability and capacity in joy at work for patient safety.