• Alden Yuanhong Lai, Bram P I Fleuren, Christina T Yuan, Erin E Sullivan, and S Mark McNeill.
• From Department of Public Health Policy and Management, School of Global Public Health, and Department of Management and Organizations, Stern School of Business, New York University, New York (AYL); Department of Work and Social Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Netherlands (BPIF); Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland (CTY); Sawyer School of Business, Suffolk University, Boston, Massachusetts (EES); Trillium Family Medicine, Asheville, North Carolina, and North Carolina Academy of Family Physicians, Raleigh, North Carolina (SMM).
• J Am Board Fam Med. 2023 Feb 8; 36 (1): 193199193-199.

AbstractMedical assistants are core members of the primary care team, but health care organizations struggle to hire and retain them amid the ongoing exodus of health care workers as part of the "Great Resignation." To sustain a stable and engaged workforce of medical assistants, we argue that efforts to hire and retain them should focus on making their work worthwhile. Work that is worthwhile includes adequate pay, benefits, and job security, but additionally enables employees to experience a sense of contribution, growth, social connectedness, and autonomy. We highlight opportunities during team huddles, the rooming of patients, and career development where the work of medical assistants can be made worthwhile. We also connect these components to the work design literature to show how clinic managers and supervising clinicians can promote worthwhile work through decision-making and organizational climate. Going beyond financial compensation, these components target the latent occupational needs of medical assistants and are likely to forge employee-employer relationships that are mutually valued and sustained over time.© Copyright by the American Board of Family Medicine.

12 keywords...

hide…