Doctors, nurses and other health care workers from organizations across Massachusetts are available to offer encouragement, support and resources to peers experiencing work-related stress and negative emotions. The volunteers are part of the Virtual Peer Support Network, a free, confidential service based at the Betsy Lehman Center for Patient Safety. 

Members of the medical community in the state can ask for support by calling 617-701-8101 or completing an online form. Someone from the peer support team at the Center will respond promptly to match the caller with a trained volunteer working in a similar role. All conversations are 1:1, confidential and take place by phone or video conference.

The virtual network’s trained peer supporters include more than 75 health care workers representing a diversity of roles, including physicians, nurses, advanced practice providers, pharmacists, chaplains, medical technologists, and more. 

Every peer support volunteer receives four hours of online group training. The volunteers also attend a “support for the supporters” virtual meeting twice a year for networking and learning, as part of the overall assistance the Center offers peer support volunteers.

Early next year, Tim McDonald, M.D., Chief Patient Safety and Risk Officer at RLDatix, will speak at a Virtual Peer Support Network meeting to introduce a new software tool to improve the network’s efficiency and communication.

Linda Kenney, Director of Peer Support at the Betsy Lehman Center, notes that while the Center has offered peer support programming since 2019, the virtual network was launched in 2022 after COVID intensified the need for peer support.

“Stress levels have only increased since then, including those without direct clinical duties, such as receptionists, security staff and dietary workers,” she says. “The goal is to be able to help everyone who works in a health care setting who reaches out.”

Organizations connect their clinicians and staff with the Virtual Peer Support Network

In addition to offering support to individuals, the Center invites organizations to publicize the Virtual Peer Support Network as a special offering to their employees. The Center’s team will provide promotional materials to help spread the word within each organization. The material can be “co-branded” so that clinicians and staff know that their organization is helping to support the virtual network.

Beth Israel Lahey Health is one of the health systems working this way with the Betsy Lehman Center. BILH offers in-house peer support networks to employees at its larger hospitals, including Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. The virtual network complements that by making peer support available to employees at BILH’s smaller facilities as well as anyone at BILH’s larger hospitals more comfortable talking with a supporter from a different organization.

Peer support training helps the volunteers, too

Peer supporters can also benefit from the training they receive. At a recent meeting of volunteers, Kenney asked, “Are you using any of the skills you gained from the training in your professional life?” 

Many volunteers reported in the affirmative. For example, some said they have learned to avoid looking for quick solutions to other people’s problems based on the active listening skills they acquired during peer support training.

“It felt good to hear that volunteers can apply these skills outside of the peer support setting and gain benefits in their professional relationships while also helping colleagues across the state who are in need,” Kenney says.