Protecting Nurse Mental Health: The 2021 CNO Report
Janae Sharp sat down with Rhonda Collins, DNP, RN, FAAN, the Chief Nursing Officer of Vocera, to talk about their 2021 Chief Nursing Officer Report. Vocera won the 2020 Sharp Index Award for Best Health Tech Company to Reduce Physician Burnout and was recognized for their excellence in improving communication for healthcare workers. Hands-free communication is critical to care team collaboration and patient safety, and having it during COVID19, when personal protective equipment was in short supply, proved to be even more essential.
They discussed mental health and burnout among healthcare professionals. Dr. Collins works with nursing leadership groups globally to improve workplace communication. As the chief nursing officer of Vocera, she shares clinical best practices and helps so-design and deploy solutions that reduce cognitive burden for clinicians.
After a year of uncertainty, Collins encourages leaders to create a healthier system. The CNO Report focuses on issues that nurses are facing. One of the biggest issues is a global nursing shortage. The International Council of Nurses estimates that up to 13 million nurses will be needed to fill the global nurse shortage gap in the near future. Dr. Collins talks about how this shortage requires innovative solutions to both increase the number of nurses in the field and reduce burnout to keep nurses happy and healthy in their work environments.
Another major issue is workplace violence. One study reported that 25.77% of nurses surveyed experienced physical violence in the workplace. Healthcare workers need to feel safe in their environments, both physically and mentally.
Dr. Collins notes that mental health of caregivers is critical to the functioning of our healthcare system, and that healthcare organizations need to commit to this effort to make the environment better for the health professionals. When these professionals are taken care of, there are better health outcomes for their patients.
One way to improve mental health and reduce burnout is to improve the technology we give them. As Dr. Collins points out, smartphones can do hundreds of functions, while our healthcare workers still use fax, landlines, and pagers. How can healthcare organizations collaborate with technology companies to provide better technology for our healthcare workers? This is the question that healthcare needs to answer. In a complex market, holding technology accountable matters.
Learn more about the Chief Nursing Officer Report and watch the entire video below: