Several years into COVID-19, public health care systems are experiencing an unprecedented staffing crisis with high rates of turnover and a widespread feeling of burnout. To help systems rebuild and strengthen their care teams, SNI launched a program focused on workforce wellbeing. See below for information on events and other resources. 

2023 Programming

Monthly webinar sessions covering topics in:

  • Cultural Transformation and Wellbeing (e.g., team-based practices to reduce burnout, employee mental health and peer support, connecting wellbeing to diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts)
  • Redesigning Daily Work to Improve Efficiency and Wellbeing (e.g., EHR changes to reduce “work after work,” de-implementation checklists, Save Time playbook).

Past Events

Wellbeing in Action: Peer Sharing and Program Wrap-Up — May 30, 12 – 1:00 p.m.

During the final session of SNI’s workforce wellbeing program, participants will learn about promising approaches at peer systems and reflect on progress in their own wellbeing efforts. Leaders from Contra Costa Health System will share how they are building a grassroots wellness community through their Wellness Influencers program and Wellness Mini-Grants. Riverside University Health System will discuss their peer support services, available to providers, staff, and community members through their Operation Uplift program and Take My Hand chat app. Participants will wrap-up the session – and the program – with a brief reflection about how their wellbeing work has evolved over the past year and where it will go from here.  View the Webinar Recap and Webinar Slides & Recording

Connecting Workforce Wellbeing with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion – May 11, 1 – 2:30 p.m. 

There are many parallels between efforts to improve workforce wellbeing and the steps to build a culture of equity and inclusion across a health system. Concepts such as psychological safety, active listening, and the space to take risks are common threads in both initiatives. In this session, Dr. Larissa Thomas, Director of Wellbeing for University of California, San Francisco Graduate Medical Education and Hospitalist at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital (ZSFG), will discuss how ZSFG draws connections between wellbeing and restorative justice, including practical examples that advance the goals of both. View the Webinar Recap and Webinar Slides & Recording

Reframing QI: How Centering Relationships in Quality Improvement Leads to a Happier, Healthier and More Efficient Workforce – April 20, 9 – 10:30 a.m. 

Many of the steps we take to improve quality of care can feel transactional: mark a checklist, click an EHR reminder revise a scheduling form. In this webinar, participants will consider what it would look like to reorient quality improvement around relationships as a way to strengthen patient, care team, and provider dynamics and improve wellbeing. Participants will learn approaches to become more efficient, such as pre-visit planning and inbox management, and how to center relationships in these improvement efforts. Speakers include Dr. Christine Sinsky, Vice President of Professional Satisfaction, American Medical Association, and Dr. Maria Nichole Perez, Chief Medical Officer of Primary Care, Ascension Medical Group Seton. View the Webinar Recap and Webinar Slides & Recording

Fostering a Culture of Safety, Trust, and Wellbeing – February 22 (12 – 1:30 pm)

Participants learned how to foster a culture of psychological safety at the team- and systems-level, including ways to build trust and create a learning environment where it’s okay to take risks. Participants will understand how to identify expressions of culture on healthcare teams, review a framework for psychological safety, and work through a case study to apply what they learn. Our guest speakers are Dr. Gail Armstrong, Professor and Faculty Development Coordinator at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and Dr. Daniel Hyman, Chief Safety and Quality Officer at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Clinical Professor of Pediatrics, the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. View the Webinar Recap and Webinar Slides & Recording  Resources: Rebuilding a foundation of trust, James Reason’s Culture Algorithm

Essential Leadership Practices to Strengthen the Workforce. January 30 (2 – 3:30 pm)
Participants will learn a series of high-yield leadership practices that are shown to reduce burnout and improve wellbeing among providers and staff. Dr. Patrick Kneeland, Vice President for Medical Affairs, DispatchHealth will discuss how to apply and refine these practices, drawing on his experience as a leadership coach and healthcare executive. View the Webinar Recap and Webinar Slides and Recording.

Leadership, Culture, and Workforce Wellbeing – In-Person Workshop @ the CAPH/SNI Annual Conference (by invitation). December 7 (10 am – 2 pm). A panel of Chief Wellness Officers shared their experiences developing systemwide strategies, gaining buy-in, and building organization infrastructure to improve wellbeing. Participants worked in teams to develop and strengthen their own workforce strategies.

Measurement Approaches to Workforce Wellbeing – Part 2 (November 14, 12-1:30pm)

Dr. Christine Sinsky, Vice President, Professional Satisfaction, American Medical Association and Dr. Elizabeth Harry, Senior Medical Director of Well-being, UC Health will share approaches to move from data collection to action. View the Webinar Recap and Webinar Slides & Recording.

Measurement Approaches to Workforce Wellbeing – Part 1 (October 24, 12-1:30pm)  

Dr. Bryan Sexton, Director of the Duke Center  for Healthcare Safety and Quality, will discuss tools to measure workforce wellbeing. SNI will share results from a member survey and Dr. Sexton will explain how systems can strengthen their measurement approaches. View the Webinar Recap and Webinar Slides & Recording.

Landscape of Workforce Wellbeing (September 28, 2022)

Dr. Pierce described the current state of workforce burnout and shared evidence-based solutions to improve provider and staff wellbeing at health care organizations. View the Webinar Recap and Webinar Slides & Recording.

Kick-off Webinar: Program Sneak Peek and Overview (August 22, 2022)

Dr. Read Pierce, Chief of Hospital Medicine and Associate Chair for Faculty Wellbeing at UT Austin’s Dell Medical School, gave a sneak peak of program content, including proven leadership behaviors that reduce burn-out and an evidence-based framework to organize wellbeing efforts. SNI provided an overview of webinar and in-person sessions and described an opportunity for systems to work with expert coaches. View the Webinar Slides & Recording.

Coaching for Public Health Care Systems 

SNI is also able to sponsor up to 12 PHS to receive ~8 hours of coaching per system, to work with expert faculty on a workforce wellbeing project of their choosing (hours may change based on the number of participating PHS). Examples of projects include: 

  • Getting started on wellbeing efforts (e.g., identifying champions, forming committees) 
  • Strengthening measurement and moving to action (e.g., identifying gaps in existing measurement tools, using data to engage staff and providers) 
  • Effective leadership approaches to improve wellbeing (e.g., how to create a Chief Wellness Officer role, prioritizing and allocating resources) .  ,, 

CAPH/SNI Contact: Amanda Clarke