Enhancing Communication, Community, and Reducing Burnout Using a Quality Improvement Framework

Description: The Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital (JHACH) anesthesia team (AT) has undergone significant changes in leadership over 12 years, paralleling shifts in the healthcare landscape, notably accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Amidst the pressure to provide high-quality care for medically complex patients, the work environment has become more stressful raising concerns about health/wellbeing, professional comportment, decreased morale and department cohesion.

Recognizing these challenges, we have engaged in a quality improvement process targeting professionalism. The first step in our Shewhart cycle is gathering data in these issues. Utilizing these data, we are building modules to induce positive changes in communication, community, and burnout prevention. We will present the results of our intervention and preliminary conclusions of our Shewhart cycle.