Magnet4Europe: Improving Mental Health and Wellbeing in the Health Care Workplace. (Magnet4Europe)

Over 23 million Europeans work in health care. Burnout, anxiety, sleep disorders, depression, and associated stigma are more common among health care workers, and exact a huge toll on individuals and families, particularly on women who are the majority of health care workers, and on society by erosion of productivity and safety of health services. Magnet4Europe transfers, modifies, scales up, and evaluates an evidence-based model of organizational redesign of clinical work environments to enhance workers’ wellbeing, retention, productivity, and patient outcomes. The Magnet model of workplace redesign has been adopted by 490 hospitals in 6 countries but has been slow to take root in Europe despite substantial interest as evidenced by letters from 84 European hospitals in 5 countries (Belgium, England, Germany, Ireland, Sweden) to participate in Magnet4Europe. Proof of concept of transferability of Magnet to differently organized and financed health care systems was shown in 2 pilots. Magnet4Europe modifies the Magnet model with stakeholder co-designed adaptations for Europe, one-to-one twinning with Magnet recognized hospitals, a learning collaborative including policymakers to promote success and sustainability, and a critical mass of institutions promoting innovation, attracting public interest, and fostering replication. Magnet4Europe uses a mixed method design to determine direct and indirect individual and collective health outcomes and cost effectiveness; it will improve mental health, reduce sickness absence, positively impact productivity and economic results by redesigned clinical work environments that promote mental health. The project will inform workplace mental health policies based on evidence with applicability beyond health care. Coordination is by experienced partners that implemented the FP7-RN4CAST project in 12 EU countries producing 70+ scientific papers, influencing EU and national policies to improve nurse retention and patient outcomes.