Empowering Teams Begins With Human Connection: Missy Hopson, PhD

Missy Hopson, PhD, senior vice president, chief learning and workforce development officer, Ochsner Health, spoke with The American Journal of Managed Care^® (AJMC^®) about the value of cultivating supportive and engaging care environments to not only empower team members, but also enhance patient experiences, outcomes, and overall health equity. When it comes to strengthening the health care workforce, particularly when seeking more patient-centered approaches, it remains imperative that health systems invest in the cultures they want to create.

Sustaining an effective, collaborative, patient-centered workforce is not without its challenges, she added. As health systems reimagine how to cultivate staff dedicated to patient-centered care, building strong partnerships within the community will be essential. Whether through schools or other local organizations, inspiring children and adolescents by showing them that a career in health care is both meaningful and attainable is a key step toward creating accessible pathways into the field.

Challenges related to strengthening the patient-centered workforce, strategies for implementing these approaches, addressing the holistic needs of patients, and more were discussed at a recent Institute for Value-Based Medicine event held in New Orleans, Louisiana.

AJMC: As it pertains to patient-centered care, what are some of the significant gaps in training or workforce development that still need to be addressed?

Missy Hopson, PhD | Image credit: linkedin.com

Hopson: One of the most pressing gaps is the integration of behavioral, relational competencies into clinical training. We can't deliver patient-centered care. We don't train for trust, communication, real-world teamwork. We have to prepare our future care team members to connect, collaborate, care, and these are often treated as soft skills and dismissed. And what those skills really are are human skills, and those human skills are essential to delivering patient-centered care. We got to quit treating them as secondary skills. They need to be primary. It also means that we need to do more cross-disciplinary training. We need to help our team members understand how their unique role contributes to the whole care experience, and we need them to value and understand the rules of others around them, so that the MA [medical assistant] appreciates what the social worker is doing and understands their unique role in the continuum of care, just as the physician needs to understand it. The front-line nurse, the social worker, it's all part of a continuum of care where we get better results by investing in the humans around us. It's the relational side.

The final gap that needs to be thought through is, how do we really engage in training that reflects the communities we serve and the complexity of care today, not just relying on yesterday's models? We've got to invest in accessible, community-based pathways, and we have to work to remove structural barriers to education and advancement.

AJMC: How can health systems best structure and support their care teams in ways that not only optimize care, but also promote equity and reflect the diverse needs of the patients they serve?

Hopson: I think it all begins with culture. Health systems have to invest and be intentional about the culture they are creating; that means trust, psychological safety. These things are not just luxuries, they're essential ingredients in a high-performing, equitable care environment.

What do I mean by that? When we're intentional about building a culture that supports belonging, that supports caring communication, that is engaged in team empowerment, what we're doing in that situation is we're helping our teams to feel safe. They feel supported, they feel connected, and that care team member ripples out to the entire patient experience. So it's not just good for team morale. It's essential for equity. It's essential for us to help to optimize care operationally. It means that health systems need to do a really good job of listening to their workforce. They have to invest in career development. They have to design care teams that reflect the lived experiences and languages of the communities they serve, and by that, we've got to partner with schools. We've got to partner with community organizations to create local pipelines into health care careers, because representation is going to begin with access.

AJMC: In your experience, what impact can patient-centered care models have on patient outcomes?

Hopson: Patient-centered care isn't just compassionate, it's clinically effective. When care is centered around the patient, when communication is clear, preferences are being honored, and teams are coordinated, what do we get? We get higher patient satisfaction. We get better adherence. We have fewer avoidable readmissions. We've got improved clinical outcomes, because so much is built into relationship creation, is built into respect, built into trust. When we go beyond those metrics, that care that respects the individual, that moves beyond the diagnosis, leads to stronger relationships. Stronger relationships lead to better results.

AJMC: In your view, what strategies are the most promising for retaining and sustaining a high-functioning, patient-centered workforce—especially in the face of burnout and staffing shortages?

Hopson: I think a lot came out during the pandemic and shortly after the pandemic about clinician burnout. We have to shift that conversation from resilience to resource. By that, I mean the workforce doesn't need more grit. It needs support. We have to invest in strategies that center people-coaching for career growth, well-being resources, mental health, flexible development pathways, leadership training that equips managers to lead with empathy, and accountability to be human-centered leaders. We also need to create clear pathways to advancement through tuition assistance, scholars programs, because growth fuels retention.

We have to help our team members connect their purpose to the work that they are doing, because when we're working with purpose, we're not working a job, we're working a vocation, and that's very different energizer. We’re looking for things that replete your energy, not deplete your energy. Retention, then, is rooted in recognition, growth, culture, not just in compensation. We have to make sure that we think about when we're thinking about burnout, we're thinking the opposite of it. It comes from a lack of voice, a lack of agency. How do we make that space for our teams to be empowered, to make appropriate level decisions, and how are we getting really good at hearing our people?