By Daniel Casciato
Healthcare professionals spend their careers recognizing when patients need help. Recognizing the same warning signs in themselves can be far more difficult.
For Madeline Libretti, LCSW, MHA, a licensed clinical social worker in pediatrics and graduate of Florida Atlantic University’s Executive Master of Health Administration program, that disconnect points to a larger challenge for hospitals and health systems. Supporting the mental health of the healthcare workforce can no longer be treated simply as an employee benefit. It has implications for patient care, staffing, retention and the health of the organization itself.
“I think burnout, compassion fatigue, and vicarious trauma are some of the biggest challenges healthcare professionals are facing today,” Libretti says. “These are not necessarily new issues, but I think we are seeing them more openly discussed and recognized than we have in the past.”
The pandemic accelerated that conversation, but the pressures did not disappear when the public health emergency ended. Staffing shortages, rising patient needs and administrative responsibilities continue to strain healthcare professionals, often while they are managing the emotional weight inherent in caring for people who are sick, injured or frightened.
In pediatrics, that emotional burden can extend well beyond the individual patient.
“We aren’t just caring for the patient; we are often supporting parents and siblings as well,” Libretti says. “As healthcare professionals, we can become very invested in the families we work with, and some of the situations we see can stay with us long after we leave work.”
Making Support Easier to Access
Greater awareness of burnout and mental health challenges is important, but Libretti believes healthcare organizations also have to remove practical barriers that prevent employees from getting help.
A clinician who is already exhausted may be unlikely to navigate a complicated process to locate mental health services, make multiple calls or determine what care is covered. Resources have to fit the realities of healthcare schedules and be communicated before an employee reaches a crisis point.
“I think we need to make it as easy as possible for healthcare workers to get help,” Libretti says. “Healthcare professionals are very good at recognizing when a patient or family needs support, but we are not always as good at recognizing those signs in ourselves.”
That means offering free or affordable resources, making them readily accessible and ensuring employees know how to use them. It also means creating an environment where seeking help does not carry professional stigma.
Leaders have an outsized role in shaping that environment.
“Mental health shouldn’t only be discussed when someone is already in crisis,” Libretti says. “It should be an ongoing conversation to potentially reach and support employees before they are in crisis.”
Annual training can be part of that effort, but she sees value in more frequent conversations between leadership and frontline teams, along with programs addressing stress management, self-care and wellness.
The language leaders use matters as well. Encouraging employees simply to become more resilient can ring hollow when the underlying sources of workplace stress remain unchanged.
“If employees see their leaders acknowledging that healthcare can be stressful and encouraging people to take care of themselves, it sends a very different message than simply telling employees to ‘be resilient,’” Libretti says.
Employee Well-Being and Patient Care Are Connected
Mental health support is sometimes placed in a separate category from clinical quality and patient safety. In practice, Libretti sees the issues as closely connected.
Chronic stress and emotional exhaustion can affect concentration, patience and a healthcare professional’s capacity to respond to demanding situations. Burnout may also increase absenteeism and contribute to employees leaving their jobs, adding pressure to teams that may already be understaffed.
“When you already have staffing challenges, even a few people being out can put additional pressure on the rest of the team,” she says. “That can create a cycle where the remaining staff become even more overwhelmed, which can contribute to additional burnout.”
Breaking that cycle requires organizations to think beyond traditional employee assistance programs.
Libretti points to partnerships with community organizations and businesses as one option. Gym memberships, fitness classes, mindfulness programs and other wellness opportunities can broaden the resources available to employees. Hospitals can also create opportunities for colleagues to connect outside the immediate pressures of patient care.
Those initiatives, however, should not become a substitute for addressing workplace conditions.
“At the same time, we can’t put all of the responsibility on the individual employee,” Libretti says. “We need to look at the workplace itself and ask what we can do to make the work environment healthier and more sustainable.”
That distinction is increasingly important as healthcare organizations compete for a limited workforce. Mental health and workplace culture have become part of the recruitment and retention equation alongside compensation, benefits and career advancement.
Libretti says healthcare professionals want to know their organizations value them as people, not solely for what they contribute during a shift.
“Of course, salary, benefits and opportunities for career growth are important, but culture matters too,” she says. “People want to work somewhere where they feel respected and where they know that their leadership cares about their well-being.”
A Leadership Perspective on Mental Health
Libretti’s perspective has been shaped by more than a decade in pediatric, maternal-child and integrated healthcare settings, along with leadership responsibilities involving staff development, mentorship, supervision and interdisciplinary collaboration. Earning her Executive Master of Health Administration at Florida Atlantic University broadened that clinical perspective to include healthcare operations, quality improvement and organizational leadership.
That combination has reinforced her view that workforce well-being belongs in conversations about organizational performance.
Hospitals cannot eliminate the emotional difficulty of healthcare. Clinicians will still encounter grief, uncertainty, trauma and families facing some of the hardest days of their lives. The goal is not to remove those realities but to build workplaces where professionals have the resources, leadership support and organizational culture needed to manage them.
For health systems confronting persistent workforce shortages, the stakes extend beyond wellness initiatives. Employees who feel isolated or believe asking for help will be held against them may eventually decide to leave. Those who feel supported and connected have another reason to stay.
“When organizations invest in their employees’ well-being, they are also investing in retention,” Libretti says. “People are more likely to stay somewhere when they feel connected to the organization, supported by their leaders, and valued for the work that they do.”
For Libretti, the principle is straightforward: “At the end of the day, healthcare professionals spend a lot of time taking care of other people. We also need to make sure we are taking care of the people who take care of our patients.”
For more information about FAU’s Executive Master of Health Administration program, visit emha.fau.edu.
