The 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has led to unprecedented mental health disturbances, burnout, and moral distress among healthcare workers, impacting their ability to care for themselves and their patients.
The Workforce Sustainment subcommittee of the Task Force for Mass Critical Care (TFMCC) utilized a consensus development process, incorporating evidence from literature review with expert opinion through a modified Delphi approach to determine factors impacting mental health, burnout, and moral distress in healthcare workers, in order to propose necessary actions to help prevent these issues and enhance workforce resilience, sustainment, and retention.
Consolidation of evidence gathered from literature review and expert opinion resulted in 197 total statements that were synthesized into 14 major suggestions. These suggestions were organized into three categories: (1) mental health and wellbeing for staff in medical settings, (2) system-level support and leadership, and (3) research priorities and gaps. Suggestions include both general and specific occupational interventions to support healthcare worker basic physical needs, psychological distress, reduce moral distress and burnout, and foster mental health and resilience.
The Workforce Sustainment subcommittee of the TFMCC offers evidence-informed operational strategies to assist healthcare workers and hospitals plan, prevent, and treat the factors impacting healthcare worker mental health, burnout, and moral distress to improve resilience and retention following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Inc.