The research is clear: Physicians and advanced practitioners who feel the organizations they work for care about their well being are more engaged, and engagement means retention—they’re less likely to “pull the ripcord” in today’s high-pressure medical environment. And the research also shows the single most influential factor in promoting physician well being is an organizational culture committed to supporting it.
But defining organizational culture isn’t necessarily easy or obvious. It’s the set of unspoken rules governing behavior. It’s the way people actually treat each other in the hurly-burly of daily work. It’s the intangible but very real set of goals and definitions of mission leadership crafts and sets before the organization. And more…
For practitioners of the medical arts working in an organizational setting, a culture supportive of their well being means, among many other values, honest communication. The first task here is making sure leadership knows how to convey the organizational mission in the most compelling and, yes, engaging ways.
Even more than this, though, it means communication is honest—no manipulation or hidden agendas—and respectful of the practitioners’ expertise, experience, human capacity and boundaries. This implies including them in decision-making rather than handing down instructions, providing them the means to voice their opinions, and showing them the organization will act on their words whenever it can.
An organization creating a culture like this can not only retain its practitioners, it can, and should, use its successes as a recruiting tool. Physicians and advanced practitioners want to work in an atmosphere like this, and if you’re building it, they’re more likely to choose you.
To learn more, read our full Article “Organizational Retention: How to Build a Culture Optimal for Physicians”.