Organisational interventions to support staff wellbeing: Case studies and learning from the NHS (24 May 2023)

Summary

With increasing concerns around the working conditions and psychological wellbeing of staff in the NHS, questions have been raised about how best to support staff wellbeing. Research is clear that wellbeing interventions that target the organisation and staff’s working environment work better than those which focus solely on supporting the individual person. Although it might seem simple to say: “we need to improve working conditions”, the challenge is whether this is possible and, if so, what this actually looks like in practice.

Content

In a project led by Birkbeck’s Dr Kevin Teoh and Dr Rashi Dhensa-Kahlon, together with researchers from the University of Sheffield, the University of Nottingham, and the Norwegian Science and Technology University, interviews were carried out with individuals and teams that have run organisational interventions in the NHS to support staff wellbeing.

The findings are captured in this report, which provides insights from 13 examples of interventions. The report details the learnings from these interventions, including important facilitators and barriers that affected the success of each intervention. Examples of some of the interventions the report details include overhauling staff rotas and shift patterns, removing bureaucracy and meeting times, changing patient care processes, co-designing fatigue management strategies, and improving team formation and psychological support.