Validated measurement tool assesses care team wellbeing through a system lens -
K. Elliott Higgins III, MD

Episode 99 | Duration: 35:07

K. Elliott Higgins III, MD, is Director of Health and Wellbeing for UCLA’s Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, a Physician Health Officer for UCLA Health and a practicing anesthesiologist with subspecialty expertise in regional anesthesia and acute pain medicine. His research focuses on measuring and understanding healthcare professional wellbeing through a systems lens. As founding leader of the research consortium for the Wellbeing Influencers Survey for Healthcare (WISH), he led the development of WISH, a validated tool designed to assess perceptions of organizational conditions that shape wellbeing rather than individual states such as burnout. He also co-chairs the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ wellbeing research working group and serves as both a member and Change Maker Coach for the National Academy of Medicine’s Action Collaborative on Clinician Wellbeing and Resilience.

In this episode of Caring Greatly, Elliott shares the origin of WISH, which was developed during his tenure as a wellbeing leader. The initiative began when he and his team wanted more insight into specific drivers and barriers for care team wellbeing. He describes the team-based collaboration with subject matter experts that resulted in identifying eight critical drivers of team member wellbeing and the validation of questions that accurately assess these drivers and reliably predict key outcomes including burnout, intent to leave and professional fulfillment. Finally, Elliott shares the ways that the WISH survey is helping to facilitate culture change and team alignment by creating a shared lexicon and helping teams focus in on changes that have the biggest impact on safety and wellbeing. He also outlines the team’s efforts to test the survey’s value in multi-center trials within anesthesia, as well as trials in other specialties, with hopes that the survey will help to improve cultures of care team safety and wellbeing across the healthcare ecosystem.

Dr. Elliott Higgins is a leader who cares greatly.

Related links:

• WISH website: Includes downloadable survey instrument
• Article: Measuring Well-being Influencers: Development and Validation of the Well-Being Influencers Survey for Healthcare
  (WISH) Inventory