Health Circles — A Hospital's Evidence-Based Solution for Better Employee Health and Performance

Study subjects reported improved job conditions, improved work quality, less burnout, fewer sleep disorders, and less psychological distress

Health Circles is a structured process in which employees hold facilitated meetings over a course of time to identify what’s holding their health back and what can be done to improve it – with an emphasis on job design and the psychosocial health risks at the workplace.

In a multi-year, controlled study of hospital nurses and aides at a Canadian hospital, researchers used an intervention based on Health Circles. Three years later, the caregivers in the health circles group reported

• improved demands, autonomy, social support

• improved work quality,

• less burnout

• fewer sleep disorders

• less psychological distress (symptoms of depression, anxiety, burnout, aggressiveness, and cognitive problems).

A control group got worse on most of the health measures.

Read the scientific review that found “health circles have a favorable effect on workers’ health, well-being, and sickness absence.”

• Read a brief summary of the Health Circles process from Europe’s PRIMA-EF Consortium.