Emotional intelligence, resilience, self-care, and self-leadership in healthcare workers burnout: A qualitative study in coaching

Abstract

Burnout is an epidemic among physicians, nurses, and healthcare workers. Unique to burnout is its severe morbidity and mortality consequences on professionals and patients alike. Solutions to combat burnout are either focused on antecedent factors, or on the individual professional. Of the individual approaches, coaching, emotional intelligence, self-leadership and self-care skills and tools have shown promise in creating a positive impact. Several obstacles linked to cost, time restraints, and delivery methods have led to limiting the potential effects of these approaches. In 2018, a group of 70 nurses and allied healthcare professionals underwent a 6-hour workshop focusing on burnout and the above-mentioned approaches. Subjective evaluation of the immediate impact was analyzed. 7 months later, another subjective survey was conducted to test the impact of the workshop on its desired goals. The results show a measurable positively powerful change that was maintained throughout. Discussion of the importance of coaching, its delivery method, and the reasons for its success follows. The results show that using group coaching while honoring the adult learners’ characteristics and relying on intrinsic motivation are very powerful tools that the healthcare industry and coaches alike can use to help in fighting the epidemic of burnout.