Lessons Learned From the COVID-19 Pandemic: Preparing for Emerging Threats

The COVID-19 pandemic placed an unprecedented strain on the healthcare system, including military hospitals. Military hospitals leveraged a rigorous response plan, creating additional demands on military healthcare staff. The purpose of this project was to determine the levels of burnout, job satisfaction, intent to leave, potentially preventable loss, and healthcare quality, and identify lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic to support future organizational preparedness.

A cross-sectional survey was administered from October 2021 to April 2022 ( n = 1814) to military healthcare staff in various roles at four military hospitals. Analyses were conducted using descriptive statistics, t-tests, and generalized linear mixed modeling.

Burnout was moderate to high across all healthcare staff, with the highest score among nurse practitioners (39.5) and the lowest among case managers and care coordinators (21.8). Higher care quality was significantly associated with potentially preventable loss ( p < .0001), lower burnout ( p < .0001), higher job satisfaction ( p < .0001), reduced intent to leave ( p < .0001), and improved pandemic preparedness ( p < .0001).

Focus on traditional workforce improvement and leadership skills, as well as preparedness, is likely to strengthen the Military Health System's capacity to deliver high-quality care before, during, and after a global healthcare crisis.