Healthcare professionals operate in complex adaptive systems with many interacting groups of stakeholders, systems and processes. The focus is on caring for the patient and family; there is often little (or no) emphasis on caring for the caregiver - the healthcare worker.

Healthcare workers can only give of their best to the patients if they feel cared for themselves; only then will safe, effective and sustainable healthcare be possible.
Healthcare institutions need to ensure that staff wellbeing is top priority; and organisations must ensure that staff wellbeing is considered in every decision and action made. Hospitals and health systems need to see the wellbeing of their staff as a key quality indicator.

Healthcare leaders must ensure that healthcare workers are thriving holistically, functioning optimally and actualizing their potential in their lives and at work. Organisational efforts and initiatives need to be comprehensive and structured, with leadership support and modelling. It will also involve a thorough communications and implementation strategy as well as metrics to measure and monitor progress. To achieve sustainable results, there must be a deliberate plan to transform the workplace culture to one that is conducive, in an environment that is caring, and one that prioritises the wellbeing of the staff.

Healthcare leaders must provide the impetus for institutions and organisations to enhance the wellbeing of healthcare workers, and work towards a goal where care can be joyful and meaningful, delivered by engaged teams, working together to advance health in partnership with patients and communities.