Psychological well-being and resilience is an integral part of both our personal and professional life, writes Dr Claudine Kearney, Senior Lecturer and Programme Director, RCSI Graduate School of Healthcare Management.
This has become particularly challenging within the field of healthcare, where there are high levels of burnout, absenteeism and turnover, due to the stressful under-resourced healthcare environment. This negatively effects employee productivity, quality and timely delivery of patient care increasing the risk of delayed diagnosis, treatment and medical errors. This puts further pressure on the healthcare system and leaders to preserve the psychological well-being and resilience among all staff. In this context, leaders that foster self-care and compassion can engender personal satisfaction, motivation, well-being, resilience and a positive psychological mind-set among all their team members. Personal self-care and compassion are paramount for effective leadership and the delivery of care to each-and-every patient. This can bring about positive change among individual healthcare professionals, patients, healthcare organisations, citizens and society.
Well-being in healthcare
Well-being is paramount for healthcare professionals where patients’ lives are at the forefront of healthcare delivery. There is no universal definition or measurement for well-being. Psychologists usually refer to two theoretical perspectives of well-being, hedonic well-being (in terms of life satisfaction, happiness, positive effect) and eudaimonic well-being (e.g., realization of personal potential, self-acceptance). Well-being improves physical and mental health and promotes positive personal and professional relationships. Our psychological health and well-being are fundamental for how we function as individuals. A leading cause of death in the modern world are diseases due to lifestyle. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO, 2024) noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) including heart, stroke, cancer, diabetes and chronic lung disease account for 74% of deaths. Lifestyle plays a significant part in the vast majority of these diseases. As individuals, we need to take care of our physical, mental health and well-being, know our core values and priorities and effectively manage the stresses in our lives. An intensified workload can result in stress that has an adverse impact on an individual’s well-being. Healthcare professionals work in a highly stressful environment, and are constantly being challenged, and exposed to numerous occupational stressors that if persistent can inhibit their well-being and result in burnout.
At Mayo Clinic, leaders recognize the importance of both healthcare providers and patients. If the physical and mental well-being of healthcare professionals is not good this will impact the quality of care and put the patient at risk. Mayo Clinic developed the ‘Well-Being Index’ to measure the risk of distress among their healthcare professionals, monitor organisational well-being, and support staff with appropriate resources to enhance their mental health and well-being. As well as the Mayo Clinic, the ‘Well-Being Index’ is available to organisations globally and is used by leading hospitals. This demonstrates the importance of taking care of the well-being of healthcare professionals and all involved in the delivery of healthcare, to ensure excellence in care for all.
Mindfulness programmes are also being delivered and supported in a number of healthcare settings for both staff and patients. This shows that leaders within those specific healthcare settings recognise and facilitate the needs of their staff to engage in programmes for their personal and professional well-being and resilience. The short-term cost of supporting staff to take time out of their working day well exceeds the long-term benefits of attending such specific and customised mindfulness programmes.
One such programme is delivered at St. Luke’s Radiation-Oncology Service, Rathgar in Dublin. Adapted from Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) (Segal, Williams and Teasdale, 2013), and based on the book by Williams and Penman (2011), this highly accessible eight-week programme is available to both staff and patients. Through a series of structured formal and informal mindfulness practices, the course emphasises the centrality of awareness to managing stress and building resilience. In addition, participants are invited to begin cultivating both self- and other-directed compassion. The benefit of these groups is the recognition of a sense of shared or ‘common humanity’; that all of us experience stress and distress; and can benefit from practices that foster compassionate self-directed and other-directed care (Sansom, Shannon and Taravajra, 2025 in press).
These programmes show compassionate leadership in supporting leaders themselves and providing a work environment where staff feel supported and valued on a personal and professional level. Healthcare organisations that deliver mindfulness programmes to staff and patients provide a mutual understanding of the challenges experienced by both, and the ability to become more resilient in times of adversity.
Resilience in healthcare
Resilience is key to individual well-being and is associated with hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Healthcare professionals need to develop resilience for their personal health and well-being, as well as the sustainability of their position and quality in the delivery of patient care. Resilience needs to be developed by individuals in collaboration with strong organisational supports and leadership. Individual and organisational resilience is the ability to positively adapt to adversity with minimal stress or risk of burnout.
It is important that healthcare professionals take responsibility for their well-being and develop strategies that will help them become more resilient and perform at the highest level in their delivery of patient care. Lifestyle practices that foster and sustain resilience include, balanced diet, regular physical exercise, practices for mental health (mindfulness, counselling and self-development courses), sleep hygiene, substance control (alcohol, tobacco and drug use) and positive relationships with strong social connections. Additionally, the appropriate organisational structure, culture and leadership are paramount to support individuals to become more resilient in light of the challenges and adversity they experience within their healthcare environment.
Leadership for psychological well-being and resilience
Healthcare leaders need to adopt positive behaviours in light of the exponential challenges they face in today’s healthcare environment. Psychological well-being and resilience require a supportive environment with the right leadership. Healthcare leaders need to support and facilitate people to flourish, recognize and acknowledge the strengths that staff bring to the organisation, utilize their core competencies while also managing their health and well-being. They need to reinforce positive psychological actions such as encouraging positivity, demonstrating gratitude, utilizing individual and team strengths, mindfulness in actions and reactions, nurturing positive interactions, and developing individual and team resilience. Thus, reducing stress, anxiety and the risk of burnout, which in turn positively influences the level of satisfaction, motivation, commitment and teamwork among staff, increases their well-being and resilience and improves the quality and delivery of patient care.
Summary
The highly demanding and challenging field of healthcare can result in increased levels of stress and risk of burnout. Therefore, it is time for healthcare organisations to ensure that health and well-being of healthcare professionals becomes part of their strategy for the future development of healthcare. The psychological well-being and resilience of leaders and healthcare professionals is imperative for the delivery of patient care that is safe, efficient and effective and results in a more positive patient experience and outcome. Compassionate leadership practices and supportive programmes such as mindfulness are paramount in creating an environment that supports and facilitates staff psychological well-being and resilience.
References
Kearney, C. (2022) Leading Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Healthcare: A Global Perspective, Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 63-79.
Sansom, S., Shannon, D. and Taravajra, D.H. (2025/in press) Mindfulness: The Basics. Routledge.
Segal, Z.V., Williams, J.M.G. and Teasdale, J.D. (2013) Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression (2nd ed.). New York The Guilford Press.
Williams, M. and Penman, D. (2011) Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World, Piatkus Publishing.
World Health Organisation (WHO, 2024) https://www.who.int/home/search-results?indexCatalogue=genericsearchindex1&searchQuery=communicable%20and%20noncommunicable%20diseases&wordsMode=AnyWord
Note: Further development can be found in the following book where some aspects of this article were originally published:
Kearney, C. (2022) Leading Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Healthcare: A Global Perspective, Edward Elgar Publishing.
