Executive walk-rounds boost safety culture, reduce front-line worker burnout

Executive walk-rounds can help reduce burnout among front-line healthcare workers and improve hospitals' safety culture, according to a study published in BMJ Quality & Safety. Researchers, including Jochen Profit, M.D., of the department of pediatrics at Stanford University, received 2,073 survey responses from 44 neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) across the country. The survey results revealed more executive walk-round feedback was associated with better safety culture results and lower burnout rates in the NICUs; however, walk-round participation and feedback were less common in NICUs compared to adult clinical areas. "Walk-rounds are a way for organizations to make sure they make the lines of communication open," Profit said, according to a Stanford blog, Scope. "It can help show that they care for the people in the trenches." Study abstract