The UAB Medicine 2022 Pulse Survey identified high distress and burnout across UAB for faculty and staff. After a review of the results, the Department of Medicine (DOM) created a Task Force for Wellness (TFW) to explore and address concerns specific to our work environment. We surveyed all faculty and staff in the department to solicit broad input of concerns.
Data Collected
In 2023, the following concerns were brought up across all subcommittees, pertaining to faculty and staff, and consequently, were deemed high-priority areas for the department:
Salary: need for transparency in salary, be market-competitive, assess for changes in workload, and ensure pay disparities are addressed
Recognition and Advancement: need to promote retention with recognition of effort, and to create pathways for advancement
Workload: need to intentionally and proactively manage workload demands, including coverage needs, to decrease the burdens of overwork
Leadership Development: need to systematically assess leaders and allow opportunities to provide them feedback; provide opportunities for existing leaders and those seeking leadership roles to develop leadership skills
Culture and Engagement: need to engage department employees in their work, communicate changes to those impacted, ask for and include employee input; ensure bi-directional communication in Divisions and Department, ensure department provides support to all
Additional Concerns
In addition, the following areas were noted to be high priority areas due to the barriers for efficient and meaningful work and high frustration levels:
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Inadequate and inconvenient parking for staff
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Delays and barriers to research throughput by the OSP and IRB
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Delays, inefficiencies, and barriers to clinical care by current processes with the Access Center, appointment templates hindering patient access, and an overwhelming number and complexity of portal messages