CDC Campaign Seeks to Redress Healthcare Worker Burnout

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), through its National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), has launched a federal campaign to combat burnout in the healthcare workforce — a phenomenon that breached its tipping point in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The initiative goes beyond the token “pizza and donuts” compensation, Vincent Guilamo-Ramos, director of the Institute for Policy Solutions at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, said, according to Stat News.

The most significant part of the campaign is a push to eliminate questions about prior mental health history and status from health care credentialing and licensing applications.

But highlighting the campaign’s broader implications, Laura Linnan of the Carolina Center remarks, “Let’s definitely support the workers… But let’s not fool ourselves into thinking that if we have healthy workers, that’ll be enough. Because if healthy workers go into an unhealthy work environment, they become unhealthy.”

J. Corey Feist of the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation, involved in designing the initiative, notes the campaign’s efficiency in not waiting for federal law mandates. NIOSH’s Director John Howard sees this as an opportunity for media and public awareness to drive regulatory change.