ICU Workload: Implications for Healthcare Worker Well-Being-ICU Workload

Video Transcription

Video Summary

The webcast introduced SCCM Internal Medicine section’s monthly Grand Rounds and featured Dr. Ankita Agrawal discussing ICU workload, burnout, and healthcare worker well-being. She argued that burnout should be addressed as a systems problem, not just an individual resilience issue, and framed her work around optimizing ICU structure and workflow to improve both staff well-being and patient care.<br /><br />Dr. Agrawal reviewed models of professional fulfillment and national recommendations that emphasize organizational culture, efficiency of practice, workload balance, and leadership support. She noted that ICU staffing, patient volume, and care delivery processes vary widely, yet evidence for defining “optimal” ICU workload remains limited.<br /><br />Her prior study, SWEAT ICU, surveyed intensivists and found no clear association between number of patients and burnout, suggesting patient count alone is an incomplete workload measure. This led her to explore cognitive load as a broader, more nuanced way to assess workload. She explained cognitive load theory and the NASA Task Load Index, which measures mental, temporal, and effort-related demands.<br /><br />Preliminary results from her current study showed high burnout symptoms and highlighted themes such as time pressure, handoffs, communication, resource shortages, and leadership support. She emphasized the need for team-based, systems-level interventions to reduce extraneous cognitive load and improve ICU worker well-being.

Keywords

ICU workload

burnout

healthcare worker well-being

Grand Rounds

systems problem

cognitive load

NASA Task Load Index

intensivists

organizational culture

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