Motivating Leadership and the Team to Improve Employee Engagement, Reduce Burnout, and Build Career Paths

We all know that preventing employee fatigue and burnout requires a multipronged and ongoing effort to address the issue. There’s probably not a company in this nation that hasn’t experienced exhausted and frustrated employees, and the struggle is real to keep everybody engaged and motivated.

Health care jobs in general involve demanding and sometimes dangerous situations, including exposure to germs and illnesses, as well as backlash from patients and their families. The COVID-19 pandemic presented even more challenges, including a drastic surge in patients, longer working hours, and sometimes shortages of supplies and protective equipment.

For example, often tucked away somewhere out of sight in a hospital is your infection prevention team, comprising frontline workers who primarily operate behind the scenes. The infection preventionists (IPs) were already experiencing long and unpredictable hours, and COVID-19 significantly increased infection control responsibilities, causing extreme pressure and fatigue for these employees.

Burnout among IPs can lead to team members being less vigilant with protocols, resulting in reduced efficiency in dealing with the infectious situations they face daily.

IPs are unsung heroes of health care, who drive infection safety throughout an organization. It can be challenging to deal with germs and infections, especially when working long hours in a health care facility and wearing a lot of personal protective equipment (PPE). However, it is a critical function in overall health care outcomes, according to Jill Holdsworth, CIC, FAPIC, CRCST, CHL, NREMT, AL-CIP, an Atlanta IP and a member of the Certification Board of Infection Control and Epidemiology Board of Directors and the Healthcare Sterile Processing Association (HSPA) Certification Council.

“Not only do these employees worry about the safety of the patient and each other, but they must also be concerned with the fact that health care–associated infections result in longer hospital stays, increased medical expenses, and could even lead to antibiotic resistance,” Holdsworth said. “Empower them, educate them, [and] respect them. We want to keep them, and knowing others see their important work helps us win the battles with retention and burnout.”

Tania N. Bubb, PhD, RN, CIC, FAPIC, said she considers her entire team “leaders,” and empowers them as such, and strives to delegate meaningful responsibilities to all to keep them engaged. After all, they regularly visit the hospital to converse with physicians, nurses, and patients. They must possess leadership and communication skills, as well as advanced knowledge of infection prevention, including the tools and processes. “I want them to know they are beneficial to the alignment of the institution,” Bubb said, who is a senior director of infection prevention and control at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, New York.

“They all are leaders, and I understand that leadership styles vary—there is no right or wrong. I want equity in leadership, not equality,” she said. “A good IP understands that mistakes involving infections cost lives.”