The Critical Need for a Meaning-Centered Team-Level Intervention to Address Healthcare Provider Distress Now

William E. Rosa, Kailey E. Roberts, Amelia E. Schlak, Allison J. Applebaum, William S. Breitbart, Emily H. Kantoff, Hayley Pessin and Wendy G. Lichtenthal
Additional contact information
William E. Rosa: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, 641 Lexington Avenue, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10022, USA
Kailey E. Roberts: Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, Yeshiva University, 1165 Morris Park Avenue, Bronx, New York, NY 10461, USA
Amelia E. Schlak: School of Nursing, Columbia University, 560 West 168th Street, New York, NY 10032, USA
Allison J. Applebaum: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, 641 Lexington Avenue, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10022, USA
William S. Breitbart: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, 641 Lexington Avenue, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10022, USA
Emily H. Kantoff: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, 641 Lexington Avenue, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10022, USA
Hayley Pessin: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, 641 Lexington Avenue, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10022, USA
Wendy G. Lichtenthal: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, 641 Lexington Avenue, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10022, USA

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 13, 1-9

Abstract: COVID-19 has unveiled and amplified the burnout, grief, and other forms of distress among healthcare providers (HCPs) that long preceded the pandemic. The suffering of the healthcare workforce cannot be simply and sufficiently addressed with a single psychotherapeutic intervention. Nevertheless, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Studies recommended prioritizing interventions that generate an increased sense of meaning in life and in work to reduce burnout and cultivate clinician wellbeing. Despite their guidance, there is a dearth of interventions for HCPs specifically targeting meaning and purpose as an avenue to reduce HCP distress. In a time when such an intervention has never been more essential, Meaning-Centered Pyschotherapy (MCP), a brief, evidence-based intervention designed for patients with advanced cancer may be key. This piece describes the principles underlying MCP and how it might be adapted and applied to ameliorate burnout among HCPs while providing a rationale to support future empirical studies in this area. Importantly, the systemic factors that contribute to the emotional and mental health burdens of HCPs are discussed, emphasizing the need for systems-level changes that are needed to leverage the potential outcomes of MCP for HCPs.

Keywords: burnout; moral distress; meaning-centered psychotherapy; resilience; COVID-19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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