The Blue Coats Program to Improve and Sustain Workforce Well-Being

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Organizational Psychology
• Workforce Development

Background:

• Traditional system-level strategies often fail to address real-time frontline needs in healthcare.
• Workforce well-being is critical for healthcare system performance and staff retention.
• Burnout and operational strain are significant challenges in the current healthcare landscape.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of the Blue Coats program on clinical workforce well-being at Penn Medicine.
• To assess the effectiveness of a locally embedded initiative in addressing frontline staff needs.
• To determine if the program improves trust, hope, belonging, and retention among healthcare staff.

Main Methods:

• The Blue Coats program embeds well-being ambassadors and operational consultants within clinical departments.
• Ambassadors observe, shadow, and listen to frontline staff to identify pain points and opportunities.
• A discovery-to-delivery model is used, involving collaboration with leadership to implement customized interventions.

Main Results:

• Early data show meaningful gains in hope, trust, and belonging among outpatient clinical staff.
• Nursing staff saw an 11.8% increase in trust and a 7.4% improvement in hope.
• Support staff experienced a 24.6% increase in trust.
• Staff reported feeling "seen, heard, and supported," and a restored sense of agency.

Conclusions:

• The Blue Coats program effectively bridges the gap between frontline experience and leadership decision-making.
• The initiative enhances workforce well-being, trust, and retention through customized interventions.
• This scalable, human-centered model offers a framework for improving healthcare workforce engagement and sustainability nationally.