Making Strides

Good morning. 

Since 2018, the Office of Well-being has worked to support and strengthen the wellness, personal resilience and overall mental and emotional health of the Medical Center’s workforce. These are major factors in addressing and preventing burnout. An institution with a positive well-being environment is stronger, more efficient and improves professional fulfillment. 

Thanks to the dedicated work of the office’s staff, led by director Dr. Josie Bidwell (who is also a faculty member in the Department of Preventive Medicine and clinical director of our Lifestyle Medicine Clinic), along with existing infrastructure  and broad support across all of our hospitals, departments, offices and schools, the Medical Center is well positioned to quickly respond to workforce well-being needs using evidence-based systems. Well-being is better engrained in our culture than ever before. 

Comparing results of the organization-wide well-being survey between the 2023 and 2025 surveys highlights improvements in key areas. 

Burnout: 
All surveys – 7% reduction 
Clinical employees – 10% reduction 
Non-clinical employees – 3% reduction 

Professional Fulfillment: 
All surveys – 4% increase 
Clinical – 5% increase 
Non-clinical – 3% increase 

These results show that between the 2023 and 2025 surveys, broad and targeted organizational initiatives – led by several Medical Center units, including Human Resources and the Office of Well-being – were associated with meaningful improvements in key indicators of overall workforce well-being. Certainly, too, the Medical Center’s commitment to fair compensation for faculty, researchers, physicians and all eligible employees through structured compensation plans and market and merit raises has had an impact on these data.  

Also, responses to job satisfaction-related questions show a 37% reduction in employees who have an intent to leave the Medical Center. Drilling down to just nursing positions, comparing the two surveys shows a 5% increase in nurses who want to stay working here. These data highlight significant improvements in working environment satisfaction. 

One example of a major operational initiative intended to just make employees’ work a little easier, thus improving job satisfaction, is a recent Epic system optimization. The program cut the input time and documentation burden in inpatient nursing workflows. After an adjustment in how a patient’s chart is saved universally across their record, there was a reduction of more than 2.3 million clicks in that workflow in Jan.-July 2025 compared to the previous process. Also, a respiratory therapist workflow change saved more than 21,000 clicks between Oct.-Dec. 2025. These types of changes can seem small but have a huge impact on employees’ feelings of being overwhelmed with processes. 

Additional initiatives include expanding our RISE, short for Resilience in Stressful Events, program to UMMC Grenada and UMMC Holmes County, strengthening peer support and offering a private Interactive Screening Program, just to name a few. 

Quoting myself from last week’s column: “I’ve said before that a healthier you is a better you, in your personal life and here at work.” As a health care institution and your employer, we remain committed to providing options to assist you when you have mental or emotional needs, or just when a little pick-me-up is what you need to help you continue through your workday. 

It’s an organizational priority to foster a culture of positive well-being. Your patients, students and colleagues need you at your best as we build A Healthier Mississippi.