Staffing struggles, long hours and concerns over mental health. Heath care providers have been sounding the alarm in recent years about the struggles they face.

Burnout tops the list for many once the COVID-19 pandemic gripped the state, but experts say it was brewing long before that.

The burnout health care workers often experienced was underlined during the pandemic, but experts say it was an issue brewing long before, and now the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is taking up the issue.

The CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s Impact Wellbeing Campaign released a “hospital-tested guide,” which outlines a process for hospitals to take at the organizational-level and changes that will impact and improve the mental health of their workers across the board.

“The hospitals need to listen to their nurses,” said Katherine Dawson, a registered nurse who has worked in the Capital Region for more than two decades. “I liked the challenge, and the fact that I would always have a job.”

But for Dawson and many other nurses across the state and nation, the appealing aspects of the job have been clouded by poor work conditions.

“Sometimes, they have five to seven patients that are very ill,” Dawson said. “It just injures their soul that they can’t provide the care that they’ve striven to provide.”

Dawson says that has deterred some of her colleagues away from the bedside, an issue highlighted during the pandemic but on the radar of many well before.

“Most of our physicians were really not doing that well,” said Dr. Leslie Kohman of Upstate Medical University. “There was some burnout and dissatisfaction, and this was before the pandemic.”

Kohman is the inaugural chief wellness officer, a position that was in the process of being created the fall before the outbreak of COVID-19.

“My original responsibility was to measure and improve the wellness of the medical staff,” she explained.

It was quickly realized that nurses fell into this category and several initiatives to address their well-being were rolled out, including free mental health counseling, a social worker dedicated to health care professionals and a team of workers across hospitals, trained in critical incident stress management.

“We have a process now where trained teams will go and assist that group of coworkers in processing and dealing with their issues,” she said.

This sort of work falls in line with what the CDC is suggesting all hospitals consider:

• Conduct a review of your hospital’s operations to determine how they support professional well-being
• Build a dedicated team to support professional wellbeing at your hospital
• Remove barriers to seeking care, such as intrusive mental health questions on credentialing applications
• Develop a suite of communication tools that help you share updates with your workforce about your hospital’s journey to improve professional well-being
• Integrate professional well-being measures into an ongoing quality improvement project.
• Create a 12-month plan to continue to move your hospital’s professional well-being work forward

“We have a lot of anecdotal reports on how people appreciate so many of the things we’re doing,” Kohman said. “And since they participate, we know that they find value.”

Dawson appreciates the CDC taking this on, but believes it’s as simple as hospital leaders listening to their staff.

“When we tell you things are bad, you need to believe us,” she said. “You need to listen to us.”

Most importantly, their newest nurses who, like her, can’t step away tomorrow.

“I can go into work tomorrow and say, 'I’m done,' and be OK,” she explained. “My younger colleagues can’t, and those are the folks I really worry about.”

The CDC will host a series of webinars next month for hospital leaders across the country to learn more about the guide in hopes of leaving them in a position to implement the guidance immediately.