Since its launch in December 2020, Dartmouth Health’s “The Cure Podcast” has brought together experts from across the Dartmouth Health academic medical system to tackle head-on what was then the emerging COVID-19 pandemic. In two years, the podcast has addressed vaccination, treatments for COVID, multiple variants, the phenomenon of “long COVID,” and how we continue to move forward in a world where, despite major progress, COVID isn’t going anywhere.
As the third year of the pandemic draws to a close, “The Cure” introduces a new series hosted by Michael S. Calderwood, MD, MPH, chief quality officer at Dartmouth Health’s Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. In the inaugural episode of “Calderwood Considers,” Calderwood and co-host Jessica L. Swain, director of infection prevention and control for Dartmouth Health, discuss occupational burnout in healthcare, especially as it relates to the pandemic. According to the World Health Organization, occupational burnout is a syndrome resulting from chronic work-related stress, with symptoms characterized by feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion; increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativity or cynicism related to one’s job; and reduced effectiveness.
Listen to episode 1 of “The Cure: Calderwood Considers”
“We work in a high-risk and often high-stress environment,” Calderwood said. “Stress will always be there, but as the stress increases, you begin to move into periods of fatigue and exhaustion, and eventually, you can push yourself into anxiety, panic, anger, or even breakdown, and each of these leads to more and more diminishment in performance. We know that burnout itself is linked to issues of risk about patient safety, reduced quality of care, reduced patient satisfaction, and we need to understand how we re-engage a beleaguered workforce. We’ve been working on staff engagement and its link to our safety culture and the care that we provide.”
Subscribe to “The Cure” wherever you get your podcasts. Visit “The Cure” webpage for all episodes.
About Dartmouth Health
Dartmouth Health, New Hampshire’s only academic health system and largest private employer, serves patients across New England. Dartmouth Health provides access to more than 2,300 providers in nearly every area of medicine, delivering care at its flagship hospital, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in Lebanon, NH. Its network of hospitals, outpatient centers, clinics and home care facilities, spans a broad geographical area. Year after year, DHMC is named the #1 hospital in New Hampshire by U.S. News & World Report, and is consistently recognized for high performance in numerous clinical specialties and procedures. Dartmouth Health includes Dartmouth Cancer Center, northern New England’s only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers and one of less than than 60 total nationally; Dartmouth Health Children’s, which includes the state’s only children’s hospital (Children’s Hospital at DHMC/CHaD) and more than 20 locations around the region; eight member hospitals in Lebanon, Keene, Claremont, Hampstead, and New London, NH, and Windsor and Bennington, VT; Dartmouth Health Home Care; Dartmouth Health Connected Care Center for Telehealth, serving patients as far away as Texas; and more than 30 primary and multi-specialty clinics across New Hampshire and Vermont. Through its partnership with Dartmouth College, Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine and the White River Junction VA Medical Center, Dartmouth Health trains nearly 400 medical residents and fellows annually and performs cutting-edge research and clinical trials with international impact. Dartmouth Health and its more than 16,000 employees are committed to serving the healthcare needs of everyone in the communities it serves and to providing every patient with exceptional, state-of-the-art, personalized care. Learn more at dartmouth-health.org.