Healthcare workers’ levels of stress rose to a new high of more than 40 percent in 2022, putting them at greater risk of health and work performance issues, according to the latest in a series of annual surveys.

The most recent analysis, conducted throughout 2022 and spanning 118,642 total healthcare professional self-assessments using the Mayo Clinic’s Well-Being Index, evaluated the wellness of physicians, nurses, residents/fellows and other healthcare occupations.

Approximately 40.2 percent of assessments showed high levels of stress, up from 37.8 percent in 2021, 35.6 percent in 2020 and 37.6 percent in 2019, the year the annual assessment began.

High stress levels contribute to many health risks, the survey shows, including risk of burnout, severe fatigue, performance problems, suicidal thoughts, and poor quality of life, among other serious health issues.

Rates varied significantly by occupation, with nurses the most likely to feel high levels of stress, followed by physicians and med students. Out of the nearly 20,000 nurse wellness assessments received last year, 57.2 percent showed high levels of stress, a slight drop from the 58 percent seen in 2021. Younger nurses in particular were at greatest risk of potentially dangerous stress levels.

According to the Well-Being Index, whose risk factors have been identified and validated by Mayo Clinic researchers, nurses experiencing high stress levels are:

• Five times more likely to feel burned out;
• Three times more likely to leave their current jobs;
• Two times more likely to perform below average at their positions;
• Two times more likely to experience severe fatigue; and
• Two times more likely to have a poor quality of life.

Although 81 percent of nurses found their work to be meaningful, 60.7 percent reported feeling burned out, while approximately two-thirds reported emotional problems, such as anxiety, depression and/or irritability, and more than a one-fourth reported lacking enough personal and family time.

The index also connects users with customized wellness resources; nurses primarily accessed stress and resiliency support (23.8 percent), emotional help (22.2 percent), relationship and work-life balance support (13.7 percent), and career development resources (13.4 percent). These were followed by help with fatigue (12.7 percent) and support on health behavior (5.7 percent), suicidal thoughts (4.4 percent), money (3.2 percent) and alcohol/substance abuse (0.7 percent).

Of the nearly 30,000 physicians that took the assessment, 38.6 percent were undergoing high levels of stress, with highly experienced physicians (25 years of practice or more) the least likely to hit these high levels.

Similar to nurses, 83 percent of responding physicians said they found their work meaningful but more than half felt burned out from their jobs. Emotional problems were also frequently cited (52.4 percent), and one-third of physicians reported not having enough time for themselves and their families.

The Well-Being Index says that physicians with these high levels of stress suffer:

• Five times the risk of burnout;
• Four times the risk of experiencing severe fatigue;
• Three times the risk of having a low quality of life overall;
• Two times the risk of reporting a recent medical error; and
• Two times the risk of suicidal thoughts.

The survey found that physicians primarily pursued help with relationships and work-life balance (24 percent), stress and resiliency (22.6 percent), emotional concerns (17.2 percent) and career development resources (11.3 percent), followed by help with fatigue (7.7 percent) and support on health behavior (5.3 percent), suicidal thoughts (4.9 percent), money (2.6 percent) and alcohol/substance abuse (1 percent).

The COVID pandemic raised stress levels, which are being made worse by understaffing, protocols that continue to grow in complexity and new technology that must be learned and implemented, says Jimmy Bechtel, vice president of site engagement for the Society for Clinical Research Sites (SCRS).

“There isn’t a silver bullet for this problem, unfortunately,” Bechtel told CenterWatch Weekly. “The pandemic led us here and it’s going to take a while to recover.”

He advises sites to make back-filling vacant positions a top priority, as many sites have been, though doing this is a challenge on its own considering the smaller pool of candidates in clinical research. In addition, site leadership may find it fruitful to look into stress reduction programs and techniques, Bechtel says.

“Anytime we can better learn to analyze and address the stress of those that work for and with us, the better we will be,” he said. “But a lot of the reasons behind this stress are systemic to the industry. We have to address them to fix this and alleviate these problems.”

Access the full report here: https://bit.ly/42sgqpg.