#247 When Stress Becomes a Compliance Risk

The Divas discuss how mental stress can affect job performance in Dentistry.  Recently, the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) released findings from its annual survey of U.S. worker attitudes on mental health earlier this month and Employees report being too overwhelmed to do their job properly. Mental stress is affecting job performance according to new research.  Employees report being too overwhelmed to do their job properly. In dentistry the mistakes due to stress could include: mistakes in documentation, infection control missteps, or medical errors.

Resources:

• National Alliance on Mental Illness 2026 NAMI-Ipsos Workplace Mental Health Poll https://bit.ly/4mr2Mxd
• OSHA - Workplace Stress  https://www.osha.gov/workplace-stress
• OSHA - Understanding the Problem: Workplace Stress  https://bit.ly/4eiA1R1

                                                 https://www.thecompliancedivas.com

Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Compliance Divas podcast. This podcast is especially important. When stress becomes a compliance risk and how mental stress can affect job performance in dentistry. The National Alliance on Mental Health, also known as NAMI, released findings from its annual survey of U.S. workers' attitudes on mental health, and employees report being too overwhelmed to do their jobs properly. Mental stress is affecting job performance, and in dentistry, mistakes due to stress could include mistakes in documentation, infection control missteps, or medical errors. Stress is rising. But even though people say they're fine, 82% of the people surveyed said their mental health is good, but 54% are concerned about stress levels. And concern about mental health has actually risen to a 43% level of employees. Takeaway, dental teams may look fine, but the stress could be building under the surface. And burnout is very common. 53% of those interviewed felt burnout in the past year. Approximately 40% say work harmed their mental health, and 39% felt overwhelmed enough to impact performance. Takeaway? Mistakes can often be tied to burnout and not necessarily laziness. Workforce shortage issues may be impacted by mental stress. People are thinking about quitting. 26% of those interviewed considered quitting due to mental health, and 6% actually did quit. Takeaway, turnover can often be stress-related and not just pay-related. Mary, can you give us a little bit of insight on the sources of stress?

SPEAKER_00 1:55

Absolutely, Leslie. And I think this NAMI study is an excellent one that is revealing good information, but it's also some affirmation that people are understanding, oh, yeah, that's why I feel the way I do. So according to the study, workers feel stressors from a variety of sources that negatively impact their mental health. Nearly 30% of the workers surveyed reported being very stressed about the state of the world in the past six months. We all know all those things going on. And another 41% reported being somewhat stressed. So there maybe is a little bit of a disconnect that they're not understanding that their mental health actually may not be as good as they think it is if they're so stressed. More than half the workers reported that at some point in the last year they felt burned out because of their job. And some of that, Leslie, you and I were talking earlier about the aftermath of COVID. That just blew so many people out of the water, drove people away from the profession. Sadly, we lost a lot of good people to quitting the profession. 38% of the workers in the study said that at some point their mental health had suffered because of demands at work, and 39% said they felt so overwhelmed, it made it hard to do their job. And I think with staffing shortages right now, that may be even higher in dentistry. A quarter of the people surveyed said that they considered quitting because of their work's impact on their mental health. And at least 6% actually followed through and quit because of it. But the survey only included current workers. So people who had already quit weren't included in that data. So that could actually even be higher. And workers who are caregivers to children or parents, or perhaps both, that sandwich generation experienced additional effects. So it's not just the work at stress or the it's not just the stress at work, it's the stress outside of work as well, and combining into like a perfect storm. Workers in the sandwich generation providing care to both children and parents are much more likely to have considered quitting their jobs because of mental health concerns. 37% of those workers compared to 26% overall quitting because of stress. And 16% of these people actually quit versus 6% who actually quit. So we're in many cases just being pulled in all these different directions, and it's just increasing the stress levels.

SPEAKER_01 5:13

Mary, it's a lot of information to uh digest, and stress is not something that people like to talk about, especially when we feel that at work we want to be at our best and we want our bosses to see us shine. We want our patients to know that everything is a-okay. But it's interesting that the studies show that people don't really like to talk about stress. Now, the surveys show that they're more employees are more comfortable talking to friends. Now, about 83% of those interviews said that they would talk to their friends about stress. But when it comes to speaking with a manager, that drop down to about 57%. And then when speaking with leadership of, you know, maybe the owner of the practice, it would be only 30% who felt comfortable talking about their stress level. And the barriers are fear of judgment. People don't want to seem weak. So dental teams and co-workers do talk to each other, but may not feel comfortable bringing those stress issues to management. There's a little bit of a trust gap here. And some of the people that were interviewed, uh actually a large number, 78% of those interviewed said that they think managers care, but only 51% felt that their leadership or their owners actually cared. So it ties into the previous point. Do people feel comfortable speaking with the management or leadership or owners of a practice? Or do they feel that they won't be heard when they are talking to them? And trends are getting worse. Mental health is declining year over year. So stress and concerns over mental health issues and self-preservation, so to speak, is increasing. So the problem isn't going to fix itself. One thing I wanted to mention was a podcast that we did in the past. It was with the great Catherine Itel Belt. And it's podcast number 119. If you have a chance to go back to your podcast app and listen to the previous podcast, it's called Courageous Conversations with the OSHA and Infection Control Coordinator. And while it focuses on having a conversation with someone who may not be compliant with OSHA and infection control, it also includes a segment about approaching the boss or approaching the supervisors when you see a problem and you want to bring that problem to their attention, but also bring the problem and ask for help with a resolution and have a resolution in hand to offer something to see how you might be able to make the situation better. Stress is not something that can be ignored. And again, as you mentioned, with our workforce shortage issue, we we can't afford in dentistry to lose someone because they feel burnt out or too stressed to do their job or make any kind of mistakes. Now, Mary, can you tell us a little bit about what might help reduce the kind of stress that would build in a dental workplace?

SPEAKER_00 8:22

Absolutely. And one thing I want to add to what you were just talking about, Leslie, is we're seeing not only this increase in stress and mental health issues, we're seeing a lot of spillover into the area of workplace violence. We're seeing in dental practices where people are being shot and killed either by a domestic partner or a disgruntled patient. And this is a frightening thing and a manifestation of stress and mental health issues. And we're going to put a really great resource in the show notes, which is information about workplace stress directly from OSHA. And many of the things that are listed are things that are very, I think, easily comfortably addressed. Number one is open communication, that this has to be, and I really encourage everyone to listen to our previous podcast on courageous conversations, because as you mentioned earlier, Leslie, a lot of times people don't feel comfortable talking about being stressed. And we need to. Many times when people are stressed, feeling overworked and underappreciated, they just shut down and then they don't communicate. And we need to be talking to each other all the time about what's going on, how we feel about what's happening. And so, of course, the morning meetings, the morning huddles, and team meetings, those are great tools to use to communicate. And we have to give each other permission to talk about what's going on, but do it in a respectful way and not singling anyone out and making it an accusation. You can only speak to your own true feelings and your own truth. We need to encourage employees to have work-life balance, that having time with their family and time doing other maybe recreational activities to help them to de-stress because, like working out and those types of things can help to relieve some of the stress. Training and development activities should be part of every dental practice, that you block off time and you either have a facilitator come in or you can partake of video training. There's all kinds of resources to be able to do that. But to help you manage your stress and help you communicate better and recognize that when somebody is appearing to be burning out, that we have not necessarily an intervention, but have a sit down with that person and find out what we can do to help them. And any ideas or any types of activities you can do to build up the morale of the team. And sometimes that involves getting out of the office together and doing either a fun activity or some kind of a team-building exercise, something to help you have a greater understanding of how to work better together to decrease that stress. And there's so many resources out there to tap into in order to make that happen.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

Mary, that is so true. And I want to just touch on that last comment of team building activities and exercises. There are resources, but there's also some great consultants that do team building. And Catherine I Telvelda's one that does that. And we can always provide some referrals to those who offer that kind of team-building activity specifically for dental teams, because you have to understand our world in order to understand what our stressors are and what our issues are. Stress can be harmful to our health and it can increase mental health challenges. Mental health challenges can include clinical mental illness and substance abuse disorders, as well as emotions like stress, grief, feeling sad and anxious, and where these feelings are temporary and not part of a diagnosable condition. There's many things in life that produce or induce stress, and work can be one of those factors. However, workplaces can also be a key place for resources, solutions, and activities designed to improve our mental health and well-being. Workplace stress and more poor mental health can negatively affect workers through job performance, productivity, work engagement and communication, physical capability and daily functioning. And practice owners and leaders should be aware and acknowledge that people carry an emotional load. Identify factors that are making it harder for people to get their jobs done. Show empathy and provide access to coping and resiliency resources. The compliance divas bring clarity and simplicity to compliance by navigating regulatory compliance to keep you on course. You can submit your questions by email to support at the compliance divas.com. All of the resources mentioned in this episode are listed in the show notes section of your podcast app. And please, when you have a moment, leave us a quick note or some feedback on the podcast and subscribe to the Compliance Divas podcast so you never miss an episode.