This session will address burnout in healthcare broadly before focusing on the ambulatory medical office, with particular emphasis on non-clinical staff. This often-overlooked group is as critical—and as vulnerable to burnout—as their clinical counterparts.

We’ll begin with recognition of burnout and its prevalence in today’s healthcare workforce. We’ll explore the related patient safety implications, including a de-identified event report. Next, we’ll discuss a data-driven, top-down approach to identifying causes of burnout, and we’ll share publicly-available assessments. We’ll examine a range of operational strategies and highlight several creative, employee-centered strategies to increase flexibility in working life. Finally, we’ll discuss the importance of psychological safety and protected time for any workplace intervention aimed at preventing or mitigating burnout. We’ll model that by inviting learners to trial a brief meditation within the scheduled session time, providing the option to step away if that is what they need most.