Emotional Wellbeing and The Healthcare Workforce: A Review

Abstract

Healthcare systems have long recognized the impact of adverse health events on patients and families, and in recent years have gone further to identify the resulting emotional strains on the healthcare workforce. This attention to emotional health, which has been described as the overall state of one's emotions and the ability to manage and adapt to stressors, is also referred to as "emotional wellness" or "wellbeing." As this concept of wellness expands and evolves in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic into a priority on the wellbeing of those in the helping professions, the current review explores the existing literature on the impact of compassion fatigue, compassion satisfaction, and their relationship to occupational burnout, with the conclusion that the emotional wellness of healthcare stakeholders and the health of an organization itself are not mutually exclusive. A review of these identified areas of occupational wellness is conducted, as well as a summary of findings emphasizing its significant implications for the healthcare workforce moving forward, both in relation to tangible costs to the healthcare industry and its reach to the bedside in the form of reported patient experience.