Wellness-Centered Leadership: A Key Differentiator for Successfully Reducing Burnout and Building a Culture of Well-Being Among Physicians and APPs

The bottom line

Training leaders in wellness-centered leadership — and equipping them with toolkits — was followed by three years of falling burnout and intent-to-leave in one health system, one of the few multi-year signals that leadership development itself can shift these outcomes. This supports investing in leader capability, not just clinician-facing programs. Without a control group, secular trends over those years cannot be excluded.

What the source found

Health-system case study of formal wellness-centered leadership program (training plus toolkits) with 3 years of survey data showing reductions in burnout and intent to leave alongside improved leadership alignment scores.

Limitations and applicability

Single health system; no control condition; pre-post design; publication 2025 — may be pre-print.

Population and setting

Physicians and APPs in a health system

Used in FairShare guides

• Leadership, Culture, and Fairness
• Evidence-Based Wellness

About this evidence

Research question / practical issue

How does this source inform Leadership, Culture, and Fairness and Evidence-Based Wellness and Retention and the Anesthesia Workforce for the population it studied?

Study design, evidence tier, and source class

Peer Reviewed Case Study · primary source · evidence tier 2

Source type: Peer Reviewed Case Study · primary · Evidence tier 2

Topics: Leadership, Culture, and Fairness, Evidence-Based Wellness, Retention and the Anesthesia Workforce

Audience: Department Leaders, Wellness Leaders