As a medical professional, your role is one of the most important jobs anyone can have. Day in and day out, you put others before yourself to ensure patients and their families get the best care possible.

High-pressure situations and long working hours, however, can leave you struggling to find the perfect balance between work and life.

Whether you are just starting your healthcare career or are an experienced professional, the Hospitals & Healthcare Toolkit provides information, tools and resources to help you be your best – for yourself, the patients who depend on you and your loved ones.

Explore valuable information and resources to support you at all levels. As you take a look around, remember the services within your employee or member assistance program are also are available 24/7/365.

To contact the EAP or MAP, use the group name (located on the program’s promotional materials) and input it at the bottom of this page to access your web portal.

Orientation video

Watch this short video to learn more about how your employee assistance program (EAP) or member assistance program (MAP) supports healthcare and hospital workers.

Shiftwork

Healthcare and hospital workers often find their shifts filled with long hours, little sleep, stressful situations and other issues that take a toll. Here are some tips to help you maintain your wellbeing and proper sleep techniques.

• Staying healthy while working the night shift

• Getting better sleep

• Sugar and mental health

Stress management

Many studies link job strain to various illnesses, from headaches and backaches to heart disease. However, it’s vital to recognize that no matter your profession, overcoming or eliminating overwhelming job stress may be possible.

• Dealing with uncertainty

• Managing stress

• Coping with worry and tension

Dealing with loss and grief

Healthcare professionals have long struggled with the emotional conflict that comes with the death of a patient — it’s simply human nature to grieve when someone you have come to know passes away. Learning to deal with death and dying is integral to taking care of yourself.

• Grief and loss

• Coping with a traumatic event

• Supporting a grieving colleague

Work-life balance

As long as you’re working in healthcare, juggling your career and personal life demands will likely be an ongoing challenge. The resources below can help you recognize and manage stressors that stand in the way of achieving your best work-life balance.

• Achieving a better balance in your life

• Getting out of debt

• Child care with a non-traditional work schedule

Professional organizations

The organizations listed below provide key resources for healthcare workers interested in pursuing professional development or connecting with like-minded practitioners.

• American Hospital Association (AHA) – Through its Professional Membership Groups, the AHA is ready to assist healthcare personnel with tools, services and educational opportunities focused on their professional growth and development.

• American Medical Association (AMA) – This association provides strength to physician voices in courts and legislative bodies across the nation. The AMA is dedicated to driving medicine toward a more equitable future, removing obstacles interfering with patient care and confronting the nation’s greatest public health crises.

• Medical & Professional Associations – Membership in a medical association can help enhance your career and keep you informed of the latest news about your field. View this comprehensive list of associations for hospitals and healthcare professionals.

Open access journals

Professional journals are peer-reviewed periodicals. The journals listed in this section are available online at no charge. They are an excellent source for the most current research and reviews in the healthcare industry.

• Bulletin of the World Health Organization – Internationally known, the World Health Organization (WHO) offers this journal with insight into everything from medical research and beyond.

• American Journal of Preventive Medicine – This journal allows medical professionals to stay updated and alert on the newest preventive care methods.

• Academic Medicine: Journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) – The AAMC serves and leads the academic medicine community to improve the health of all. The AAMC is a not-for-profit association dedicated to transforming health care through innovative medical education, cutting-edge patient care, and groundbreaking medical research.

• Journal of Adolescent Health – Primarily dealing with developmental medical research, this journal also helps highlight new pediatric procedures and insights into other areas of adolescent behavioral studies.

• Mayo Clinic Proceedings – A journal that outlines, in detail, the workings of one of the foremost medical research organizations in the world and is a good read for anyone in the healthcare industry. The Mayo Clinic sponsors the Proceedings and publishes articles that focus on clinical medicine and support its readers' professional and educational needs.

• Journal of The American Medical Association (JAMA) – JAMA has become another one of those journals that has set the standard by which all other journals are measured. It deals a lot in medical policy and medical research breakthroughs. They also have publications in other medical fields, such as Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Oncology, Neurology, Surgery and more.

• Kaiser Health News – A nonprofit news service for the Kaiser Family Foundation, Kaiser Health News is committed to in-depth coverage of both healthcare politics and how the healthcare system—including hospitals, doctors, nurses, insurers, governments and consumers—works.

Healthcare related blogs

Blogs offer a conversational approach to the latest healthcare-related news. Industry professionals often write blogs that contain the thoughts and concerns common among professionals in the healthcare industry.

• Public Health Matters Blog – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) uses the Public Health Matters blog to provide readers with updates regarding the evolution of public health and the continuous strides that are made to improve the overall state of our healthcare.

• Healthcare Dive - A blog that aims to provide busy healthcare professionals with “a bird’s-eye view of the healthcare industry in 60 seconds,” Healthcare Dive covers various topics. Its “Health IT” section offers insightful pieces on everything from artificial intelligence in medicine to the industry’s adaptation to EHRs.

• Modern Healthcare’s Vital Signs Blog – Modern Healthcare is a leading source of healthcare business, policy news, and other research and information related to the field. Reporting on important trends as they unfold, it offers blog articles, e-newsletters, mobile products and events.

• Physicians Practice – Hosted by the ModernMedicine Network, the Physicians Practice blog has a marketing section full of thought-provoking topics for those immersed in healthcare. From offering strategies for encouraging patients to return to your practice to weighing the pros and cons of outsourcing marketing, each article dives into a topic that is all too relevant for today’s healthcare professionals.

• Staff Care Insider – A healthcare staffing blog dedicated to staying on top of the trends that shape all things related to healthcare staffing today, the Staff Care Insider offers insight on healthcare job shortages, ways to overcome the mental health shortage and why hospital wait times are longer than ever.

• KevinMD – Founded by Kevin Pho, MD, this is the web’s leading platform where physicians, advanced practitioners, nurses, medical students and patients share their insights and convey their stories.

• HHS.Gov Blog – Published by the Department of Health and Human Services from the U.S. government, this blog brings together articles and insight into such categories as Public Health and Safety, Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Global Health and others.

• Harvard Health Blog – This blog brings together physicians from the Harvard Medical School and others to discuss various topics within the world of health news and issues.

Additional toolkits

• Mental Health Toolkit – Empowers healthcare and hospital workers to develop skills to help identify, understand and respond to signs of mental illnesses in their patients and co-workers through tip sheets, flash courses, helpful apps and more.

• Sleep Fitness Toolkit – Designed to help you learn good sleep habits and achieve healthy sleep.

• Grief and Loss Toolkit – Equip yourself with resources to understand your emotions, find ways to cope and discover a way to live with grief as you move forward.

• Meditation Toolkit – Boost your self-confidence, empathy, compassion and patience as a healthcare professional by practicing mindful meditation at the start of each day.

• Mindfulness Toolkit – Audio lessons, tip sheets and other resources to help healthcare professionals navigate through common workplace distractions and redirect their focus on their patients.

• Resilience toolkit – A healthcare professional’s mission is to help their patients recover – physically, mentally and emotionally. This toolkit provides resources to apply that same energy and passion to taking care of themselves.   

• Work-Life Toolkit – Full of resources and helpful tips to help you navigate concerns and boost your quality of life.

• Critical Incidents Toolkit – Use this to guide you and provide insight on practical steps and ways to move forward in the aftermath, with helpful coping skills to manage the emotional distress that often accompanies critical incidents.

• Natural Disaster Toolkit – Access resources before, during and after a natural disaster to help you prepare as best you can and assist in reconstructing your life in the aftermath.

• DEI Toolkit – Learn about the different dimensions of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, improve teamwork and build a supportive workplace.

• Wellbeing Place blog – Fresh content to help support healthcare workers’ emotional and physical health as well as their overall wellbeing.

Access your EAP or MAP for additional support

To contact your EAP or MAP, type your employer, association or group name (all lower case, with no spaces) into the field below and click “SUBMIT” and you will be taken to the EAP or MAP web portal.