Leadership for Healthy People and Communities

10/30/2023

CDC Releases Report on Health Workers Facing Harassment, Poor Mental Health, and Difficult Working Conditions

CDC Releases Report on Health Workers Facing Harassment, Poor Mental Health, and Difficult Working Conditions 

On October 24, the CDC released a report demonstrating that nearly half of health workers reported feeling burned out in 2022, and more than double the number of health workers reported being harassed at work in 2022 than in 2018. This may include threats, bullying, verbal abuse, or other actions from patients and coworkers that create a hostile work environment. Findings show that health worker burnout was at crisis levels prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the pandemic presented unique challenges that further impaired health worker mental health and increased health workers' intent to leave their jobs.

CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health announced it will be launching a national campaign—the Impact Wellbeing campaign—to provide health employers with resources to improve worker mental health.