Gratitude and Joy in Practice – Honoring UnitedHealth Group’s Clinicians During National Primary Care Week

This week is National Primary Care Week across the United States, and I want to take time to recognize the more than 120,000 primary care providers and clinical colleagues at UnitedHealth Group around the world for the work they do every day in delivering care to our patients and living our mission of helping people live healthier lives.

In the past 19 months, COVID-19 has called our nurses, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, social workers, behavioral health clinicians, physicians, physician assistants and other clinicians to serve on the frontlines of a global pandemic unlike any we have seen in our lifetimes. It has added to the many other health demands of the people for whom we care.

Many of you have put your own health at risk and sacrificed so much – including missing time with your own families. You have been models of servant leadership to which we all aspire, and your commitment and compassion have been indispensable.

You’ve delivered creative solutions, like drive-through urgent care systems and helped evolve ventilator technology.

You’ve often gone above and beyond the traditional scope of your work to help patients find housing, get healthy meals delivered, or connect with the right resources to help with challenges such as mental and behavioral health.

You’ve provided calm, compassionate voices amid the fear, stress, and uncertainty of illness. Sometimes just providing reassurance and kindness are the most important things primary care providers can do, and so many of you do that and much more every day.

You were tested and you blew past all expectations.

Long before COVID-19 began ravaging the planet, our lifeblood was our clinician workforce—made up of bold, impassioned, quick-thinking people.

The pandemic has driven heightened awareness and recognition from the wider world of the criticality of your work.

We saw with fresh clarity that our primary care providers’ impact increased exponentially. You raised your hands to go out into this wholly ambiguous situation and create new ways to deliver care. With other experts, you figured out new care pathways and developed relevant protocols. 

And in a million other ways, you made startling progress in a fraction of normal timelines. You carved inroads that will serve the world not only through this pandemic but far, far beyond.

COVID-19 also taught us about the toll this work can take. So, I have an important request for all our providers and clinicians: take a moment during this time to practice self-care.

At UnitedHealth Group, we have an initiative under way through our Center for Clinician Advancement (Center) called Joy in Practice, which can help guide the clinician to professional joy and decrease burnout.

Clinicians can access the Joy in Practice site and in real time assess where they are on the continuum and then be directed toward the resources needed. We are investing in tools such as this to help clinicians practice self-care and bring an awareness to their own mental health.

The Center also offers many learning and development opportunities, such as the Inspire Mentoring Program, Clinician Leader Executive Program, and Business of Health Care. These are just some of the programs that help to grow and develop our clinicians to meet the growing demands of the health care system. 

Your devotion to serving others in need and the broader good inspires me. But the increased toll this pandemic may take on your own health concerns me. Please devote time to yourselves. Only when you’re feeling your best can you be at your best for the people we serve.

I’m proud to be part of a company with such distinguished frontline primary care clinicians. It has been an honor to watch you work. I’m a physician and scientist, but I’m not afraid to admit that what you’ve done during these challenging times has felt almost magical.