Webinar

Working in risk management requires a balance of meeting the needs of patients to ensure safe and trusted healthcare while meeting the needs of the healthcare team to foster a positive safety culture where errors and events are openly discussed. The role can be demanding and can often interfere with personal activities and carry emotional weight and worries beyond working hours. We have learned that accident investigators can experience psychological harm that can snowball further into burnout, anxiety, and depression.

Wellbeing efforts to reduce burnout are often geared more toward staff providing direct patient care. It is not often that someone checks in on the risk professional during critical events to see how they are managing. A large part of their role includes keeping sensitive information confidential. They cannot vent or process situations with others due to the uniqueness of their role. The risk professional may not have the support and resources on hand to recognize and process the stress and emotions caused by their position. This can lead to taking these stories home and feeling consumed by the role.

This presentation will explore the emotional challenges of the role, which may include critical incident stress, emotional labor, abusive supervision, and competing loyalties/duties. The presenter will share red flags and warning signs for the busy risk professional to be aware of and strategies to prioritize balancing life along with work. Some of these strategies include developing positive social relationships, mind/body connection, autonomy, environmental mastery, self-acceptance, a sense of purpose, and personal growth. This presentation will promote the resiliency of the risk management professional in times of uncertainty.

Kathy Shostek is a healthcare loss control expert for Munich Re Specialty. With over 25 years of experience, she is an industry-recognized healthcare professional specializing in risk reduction techniques and innovative approaches to improve patient safety and reduce liability risks.

Kathy’s extensive experience includes leadership at the acute care level and a corporate multispecialty physician group practice. She has worked with national risk and safety consultancies and healthcare liability insurance companies, assisting health systems, hospitals, aging services, and physician practices in implementing risk management strategies and patient safety programs. Kathy is a past clinical risk consultant and developer for ECRI’s Healthcare Risk, Quality, and Safety Guidance System and publications, including Physician Office Fundamentals and Critical Care Safety Essentials.

She co-authored a chapter in ASHRM’s Risk Management Handbook for Healthcare Organizations, 5th edition. Kathy is a past board member of ASHRM, section lead for ASHRM’s Patient Safety Playbook, past chair and member of ASHRM’s Patient Safety Task Force, and section lead for the FMEA Playbook. ASHRM awarded Kathy the Distinguished Service Award in 2018 for her career contributions to healthcare risk management and patient safety.

Tatum O’Sullivan, RN, BSN, MHSA, CPHRM, DFASHRM, CPPS, CHSP, is currently a senior consultant – healthcare for Aon, with the Aon Global Risk Consulting team. She was previously the director of safety, risk, and patient family relations at Mass General Brigham Medical Group in Massachusetts. She has held various leadership roles, including director of risk management at an HCA hospital in New Hampshire.

She is a Certified Professional in Health Care Risk Management (CPHRM) and Distinguished Fellow of the American Society for Health Care Risk Management (DFASHRM). Tatum is a dedicated member of the American Society for Health Care Risk Management (ASHRM), where she has served and chaired committees. She was previously elected to the advisory board and nominating committee and was the 2024 president of ASHRM.

Tatum has been on the Board of the Northern New England chapter affiliated with ASHRM serving as secretary and later as president in 2014 and 2017. She also served on the Board of the Massachusetts chapter as secretary and as president in 2018. She has chaired and volunteered on various committees for the local chapters.

In 2016, Tatum received the Paulette L. Gagnon Award from the Northern New England Society for Healthcare Risk Management. This is the chapter’s highest honor and goes to members who have distinguished themselves in promoting the chapter, the profession of risk management, and in the development of other risk professionals.

Tatum is a Certified Professional in Patient Safety (CPPS) and Healthcare Safety (CHSP) and a faculty member for the ASHRM patient safety certificate program. She has presented on risk management and patient safety strategies locally, nationally, and internationally. She was a contributor on a publication for Health Care Management Review in 2017 and is a contributor to ASHRM’s Leading Health Care Risk Management Workbook and the Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) Playbook. She is a registered nurse and holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and a Master in Health Services Administration.