NHS Lothian’s Quality strategy sets out a five year journey to transform the way NHS Lothian manages change.  Staff engagement and experience is key to this.  Our annual iMatter survey is a tool to help individuals, teams and NHS Lothian understand and improve staff experience.  In addition, local quality improvement projects can improve patient & service user and staff experience.  Joy in Work methodology specifically focusses on reducing burnout by improving staff experience.  

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) is partnering with experts around the world to offer new thinking and resources around Joy in Work. A quality improvement approach to improving staff experience,  enabling job satisfaction,  psychological safety, autonomy and fair treatment — to share principles and techniques that enable the workforce to truly thrive, not just persevere.

Clinical burnout has been well documented and is at a record high.  The same issues that drive burnout also impact negatively on job satisfaction, performance, and motivation.  This results in staff absence and turnover.

When staff enjoy their work, they are more likely to stay. There is also a body of research evidence that demonstrates that a positive workplace culture results in better clinical outcomes.  Positive staff experience results in positive patient and service user experience.

The most joyful, productive, engaged staff feel both physically and psychologically safe, appreciate the meaning and purpose of their work, have some choice and control over their time, experience camaraderie with others at work, and perceive their work life to be fair and equitable.

There are proven methods for creating a positive work environment that creates these conditions (summarised by the term ‘Joy in Work’) and ensures the commitment to deliver high-quality care to patients, even in stressful times.

Further information is provided in the resource section below.

Resources

IHI Framework for Improving Joy in Work,  IHI White Paper,   Cambridge, Massachusetts:  IHI;2017.

This whitepaper includes

• A four step approach leaders can take to improve joy in work (Link to Youtube)

• The IHI Framework for Improving Joy in Work (nine components)

• Key change ideas for improving joy in work along with examples from organisations

• Measurement and assessment tools for gauging efforts to improve joy in work

What Matters to you? Conversation guide to improving Joy in Work

This IHI guide assists senior leaders in engaging in effective, meaningful conversations with colleagues to establish:

• What matters to you in daily work? (link to youtube)

• How to build on assets: What helps make a good day? When we are at our best, what does that look like?

• What gets in the way of a good day? (link to youtube)

QI in practice – Part 2:  Applying the joy in work framework to healthcare. Amar Shah,  Joy Harken and Zoe Neilson.   British Journal of Healthcare Management

This article presents four case studies that demonstrate the learning from four healthcare systems that have even applying both QI and IHI Joy in work framework to enhance staff wellbeing and experience.