Well-being initiatives for hospital employees provided by the Dutch University Medical Centres: an exploratory study

Healthcare professionals (HCPs) face a range of sources of stress and dissatisfaction. Decreased well-being among HCPs is one of the causes of the caregivers' shortage and relates to poor patient outcomes. To improve well-being in the workplace, a variety of initiatives are offered. This inventory aims to give an overview of well-being initiatives provided by the university medical centres (UMCs) in the Netherlands.

We conducted semi-structured video call interviews with all UMCs in 2021, employing a purposive sampling approach. An interview guide was used to ensure similar types of data from all informants were collected.

31 interviews were conducted among nurses, doctors, human resource personnel and occupational health department members. 203 initiatives were reported by the seven UMCs to improve or sustain employees' well-being. Initiatives concerned coaching, training, programmes, studies, apps and tools. The initiatives aim to improve physical fitness, mental fitness, personal development and balance, team collaboration, equip managers and function/context. Most of the initiatives are aimed at individual employees, and only a few focus on teams, organisations or the healthcare system. We also found that it is not evaluated if initiatives are effective to improve employees' well-being. Furthermore, HCPs' needs do not seem to be routinely evaluated upfront in the design of initiatives.

The urgency of supporting the well-being of HCPs is recognised, given the extensive amount of provided initiatives. However, this collection of initiatives must be critically reviewed in order to have a balanced offer that is effective and fits the wishes of HCPs. These results should be taken into consideration when creating, implementing and coordinating well-being initiatives for employees in the healthcare field.