How a well-being coach is helping health care workers battle burnout

Work-related stress has increased for health care workers-specifically since the COVID-19 pandemic-and psychologists widely agree there is mounting evidence that society is experiencing the psychological impacts of a collective trauma. At Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health, a new well-being coach is now available to help staff unload some of their mental burdens and de-stress.

A 2021 employee survey showed high levels of stress and burnout due to the pandemic at Lancaster General Health. In response, a burnout taskforce was formed to address the problem. One of the strategies this team implemented was hiring a well-being coach to meet with employees to not only discuss work stress, like intense patient traumas they encounter, but also non-work-related stressors like finances, relationships, recovering from surgery-whatever could be causing them hardship.

Steven Fetrow-Keihl started in November 2022 as a part-time employee well-being coach through Quest Behavioral Health, and became a full-time Penn Medicine employee with the title of advanced well-being coach in August 2024. As a therapist, he lists three specializations: traumas, relationships, and addictions.

"Health care workers have a culture and dialogue that's specific to them, uniquely different than the outside world, and a culture that frequently goes without," Keihl says.

Employee interactions range from five-minute hallway check-ins to 10-miute private meetups with an employee navigating a personal or professional distress, to scheduled consultations of half an hour or more at any Lancaster General Health location or virtually via Teams. On average, Keihl completes 60 check-ins and about 10 consultations on a weekly basis.

Physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health are often called the pillars of well-being. Keihl would agree that individuals need to care for all these elements to achieve balance in their lives-and he has tactics to support them in his own life.

Moving forward, Keihl would like to launch a peer support group by identifying and training team members to be his "boots on the ground" well-being warriors. He would identify members within teams and train them to intervene when needed for the department. This way, there would be real-time support before Keihl has a full debrief with the team.

This story is by Olivia Kimmel. Read more at Penn Medicine News.