Well-Being Leadership Training to Reduce Clinician Burnout in a Metropolitan Community Health System

Background: Healthcare burnout is pervasive, necessitating more efforts to reduce it. Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of well-being leadership training in reducing healthcare burnout. Design: The Clinician Wellness Council (CWC) leadership training consisted of 15 months of educational and small group sessions (September 2023–November 2024) with pre–post-training burnout survey comparison. Setting: Primary and specialty departments across a Pacific Northwest community-based hospital system. Participants comprised 22 clinicians from primary and specialty departments. Participants identified an intervention group where they would focus their leadership efforts. Those groups contained 549 clinicians, and 5439 non-intervention clinicians were controls. Intervention: Well-being leadership training. Measures: The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and the turnover intent questions before and after training. Results: Of the 22 CWC participants, 15 (68%) completed the surveys before and after training. Burnout reduction was seen (47% to 13%; p = 0.0253), primarily driven by decreased emotional exhaustion (EE). Among 549 intervention group clinicians, 173 completed both surveys compared to 359 of 5439 clinicians in the control group. Intervention practitioners (N = 173) showed reductions in EE items (e.g., feeling burnout, working too hard, working with people is stressful) and turnover intent. Multivariable regression analyses showed that EE reductions were associated with co-workers’ intent to leave. Limitations: We obtained pre- and post-training MBI measures on a subset of the intervention group co-workers rather than a majority. Conclusions: Participation in a well-being leadership training program consisting of education, coaching, and community building reduced burnout, increased confidence to improve their workplace, and their leadership decreased co-worker EE and turnover intent. This training creates a blueprint for reducing burnout in clinician leaders and co-workers. Primary Funding Source: A PPMC foundation grant sponsored 10 local participants. Central division funding came from system and local funds. Participants received $1000/month training reimbursement.