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Articles

Co-Creating a Thriving Human-Centered Health System in the Post-Covid-19 Era

June 23, 2020
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NEJM Catalyst
Co-Creating a Thriving Human-Centered Health System in the Post-Covid-19 Era

Experience shows that health care workforce burnout significantly increases for more than two years following infectious outbreaks. The Covid-19 pandemic occurs after several years of a recognized burnout epidemic amongst the U.S. health care workforce. As we enter into the epidemiological tail of the Covid-19 pandemic, its collision with the existing burnout epidemic could dramatically impact the health and well-being of the health care workforce. Though there are no existing guidelines for health care leaders to foster well-being following a pandemic, organizational development research points to evidence-based leadership actions during the tail of the pandemic that could not only promote well-being in the short term but also imprint more permanently into the culture of the health care system.

The clinical-burnout epidemic meets the Covid-19 pandemic "tail": How health care leaders can respond.

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