6 minute read
Rediscovering joy at work
By Edel Q. Mwende
“Joy at work” sounds more like an oxymoron, a subject of the past or future. Most employees hope they find joy at their current workplace or the next.
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The Covid-19 pandemic has taken a toll on the workforce, and employee well-being has suffered.
The sobering statistics of the pandemic and its significant disruption have obliged organizations to rethink the workplace and find ways to infuse joy to create more fulfilling employee experiences at work and their well-being.
Kenyatta National Hospital views its employees as valued contributors to its success and posterity. In addition, the patient is the Hospital’s priority. Positive employee experience consequently leads to positive patient experience and better clinical outcomes.
In September 2021, the Hospital adopted a program; “Joy at work”, spearheaded by the KNH Health Care Quality team in collaboration with The Africa Consortium for Quality Improvement Research in Frontline Healthcare (ACQUIRE) and governed by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI).
The quality improvement program focuses on building employee wellbeing by embarking on a journey of discovery to see what frontline staff need. It tracks measures to assess burnout, identifies innovations, and tests changes to see what will work to ensure employees derive pleasure and happiness at work.
How the ACQUIRE-IHI Joy at work program works
Dr. Rhoda Kalondu, HoU Patient Safety, and Joy at Work champion, unraveled to Newsline how the program works: “When we started the program, we aimed at having both the clinical and corporate service departments part of the program. We engaged the pharmacy division, human resource division, mental health department, and Newborn unit. The pharmacy division has proactively participated
in the program, and we have walked the journey with them. We plan to revisit the other three areas this year and pick up from where we left off early this year”.
“We begin by carrying out a “What Matters to You” conversation with the staff. We seek answers to this question by encouraging staff to share with us what would make them have the best day at work, what would make work joyless and hard and what changes they would like to see in their workstations,” she said.
“Staff members are encouraged to disclose what made them happy or sad daily. In the pharmacy division, the quality improvement team is currently measuring good and bad days. We have provided color-coded pebbles that represent ‘good days’ and ‘bad days,’ which are put in two separate envelopes for the department’s quality improvement champion to tally the feedback daily and record it on the template provided. There is an additional comments section
where the team presents reasons for good or bad days. The Joy at Work team then converts the comments to an electronic form to reflect on the Joy at Work online tool periodically for review with the department and devise ways to implement the proposed change ideas,” added Dr. Kalondu.
The change ideas are then tested to determine whether they are improving the employee’s joy at work and consequently assisting in better service delivery and a positive patient experience.
The aim of the program KNH Health Care Quality team realized the importance of focusing on the employees that deliver the service for the patient to have a better experience while at the Hospital.
In September 2021, the Joy at Work team conducted an online survey on burnout and what makes work joyless. According to IHI, burnout leads to lower levels of staff engagement, patient experience, productivity, and an increased risk of workplace accidents. Lower levels of staff engagement are linked with lowerquality patient care, including safety, and burnout limits providers’ empathy which is a crucial component of effective and person-centered care.
“The findings were shocking, to say the least. Employees said they just needed basic things to be happy, which we did not expect. They needed to be respected, appreciated, involved in meetings and decision making, have enough tea, breakout rooms, start the day with prayer, background music at work, and better contract terms,” noted Dr. Kalondu.
The quality improvement program aims to ensure that employees find joy at work and transfer the same to clients as they offer quality health care services to them. It enlightens employees to navigate the challenges they experience at work and go the extra mile to ensure they do not project them to the patients.
It also informs the Health Care Quality Division about what affects patient care from the employees’ point of view.
The response to the program since its inception
The program received senior management buy-in and active teams’ involvement. The Senior Director of Clinical Services (SDCS), Senior Director of Corporate Services (SDCoS), and the Director of Human Resource have backed the program and its benefits. The sensitized teams have also found great joy in disclosing their joys and frustrations at work, as this has helped them work better as teams. It has also provided a safe space for staff to open up to each other.
The future of the ACQUIRE-IHI Joy at Work Program
“It is important to note that this quality improvement initiative does not work in isolation. Other contributing factors and processes are based on the Strategic Plan and work hand-in-hand with the program to ensure its success. The vision of this quality improvement program is to see all employees happy at work. We aim to have employees find creative ways of working with what they have as they wait for hospital-wide system changes rather than being disgruntled,” said Dr. Kalondu.
She added, “We hope to see the Joy at Work program adopted as a culture change initiative at the Hospital. We also hope the program will ensure better client feedback on the departmental and hospitalwide customer satisfaction surveys.”
Quality health care starts with the employees. A joyful employee ensures a delighted client.
