Fostering Professional Fulfillment in Emergency Department Nurses

Background: Professional fulfillment, defined as a culture of wellness, efficiency of practice, and personal resilience, is essential for safe practice and nurse well-being. Lack of professional fulfillment is associated with burnout, increased risk for medical errors, and even self-harm and suicide among healthcare providers. Local Problem: Employee assistance programs have been shown to increase professional fulfillment, yet these resources are underutilized by emergency department nurses at Park City Hospital. Methods: A quality improvement project was developed with the aim of increasing Park City Hospital emergency department nurses' professional fulfillment via access to the employee assistance program. First, nurses were assessed to identify their professional fulfillment and their knowledge of employee resource programs at baseline. Based on the results of the baseline survey, access to the existing employee assistance program was enabled by the creation of an easy-to-access resource suite. Post-implementation surveys were administered to determine the program's effectiveness in terms of ease of employee assistance program access and utilization and resulting levels of professional fulfilment. Interventions: Access to the resource suite was facilitated using a QR code and placement in high-staff traffic areas. Results: Pre and post-questionnaires were sent to 24 nurses, and 21 nurses (88%) completed the surveys. At baseline, two-thirds of the respondents (n=14, 66%) were unaware that employee assistance program resources were available. After the resource suite creation and roll out, only two of the nurses (10%) remained unaware of the employee assistance program resources, a statistically significant difference (X2= 14.53, p<0.001). Qualitative results showed a theme of 3 increased employee assistance program accessibility post-intervention. Conclusions: The intervention successfully increased awareness of and access to employee assistance program resources among emergency department nurses at Park City Hospital. The number of participants who reported knowledge of existing Intermountain resources increased with greater access to them provided with the aid of technology. The project provides a framework for increasing access to employee assistance resources in other settings and highlights the importance of utilizing technology to make resources more easily accessible.