30 healthcare staff well-being survey questions
A healthcare staff well-being survey asks staff about workload, staffing, and support, with 30+ sample questions organized by category to get started.
A healthcare staff well-being survey asks your workforce how workload, staffing, and support shape their day-to-day experience on the job. It stays organizational: schedules, resources, and leadership, not screening anyone for a mental health condition.
Only 45% of surveyed healthcare professionals say senior management communicates well.
The question bank below groups by workload, staffing, communication, and work-life balance, with optional well-being items placed later and paired with a prefer not to answer option.
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Categorized healthcare staff well-being survey questions
These 30 questions are grouped into five categories, so you can pull the ones that match your priorities this quarter.
Workload and scheduling
These check whether caseloads and shift patterns are sustainable:
- How manageable is your current patient or caseload during a typical shift?
- How often do you need to stay past your scheduled shift to finish essential tasks?
- How far in advance do you typically receive your shift schedule?
- How satisfied are you with the fairness of shift and weekend rotation assignments?
- How often do you get an adequate break during a shift?
- How well does current staffing match patient volume on your unit?
Staffing and resources
These questions surface coverage, equipment, and onboarding gaps before they turn into turnover:
- How often do you have the equipment and supplies you need when you need them?
- How confident are you that open positions on your team get filled in a reasonable time?
- How often are you asked to take on tasks outside your defined role because of staffing gaps?
- How would you rate the reliability of your documentation and clinical technology systems?
- How often do staffing shortages affect your ability to provide the level of care you want to give?
- How satisfied are you with the orientation new hires receive before joining your unit?
Communication and leadership
These questions measure whether leadership closes the loop on staff concerns. Employees with no input into how their work gets done were far more likely to report burnout, 68%, compared with 47% across all employees surveyed:
- How clearly does leadership communicate changes that affect your daily work?
- How comfortable are you raising a workload concern with your manager?
- Do you feel supported discussing workload stress with your manager?
- How well does leadership act on feedback from staff meetings or huddles?
- How included do you feel in decisions that affect how your unit operates?
- How would you rate communication between shifts or across departments?
Work-life balance
These assess whether schedules protect rest and personal time. Among employees who could not balance work and home commitments, 80% reported feeling burnt out. For a deeper, dedicated question set, start with the work-life balance survey template instead:
- How often does work interfere with your ability to rest between shifts?
- How manageable is it to request time off when you need it?
- How often do you feel you can fully disconnect from work during time off?
- How supported do you feel balancing work with caregiving or family responsibilities?
- How sustainable does your current schedule feel over the next year?
- What would most improve your ability to balance work and personal life?
Optional well-being questions, placed later
Place these after the categories above, mark each one optional, and include prefer not to answer on every item:
- Overall, how would you rate your sense of well-being at work right now?
- How often do you feel emotionally drained by the end of a shift?
- Do you feel you have someone at work you can turn to when things get difficult?
- How comfortable would you be using an employee assistance or wellness resource if you needed one?
- How well does your organization follow through on well-being commitments it has made?
- Is there anything about your well-being at work you would like leadership to know that we have not asked about?
These items stop short of a clinical instrument on purpose. If staff need a dedicated screening tool, use the mental health survey template instead; for a narrower read on stress, use the stress survey template instead.
Start with a work-life balance survey
Skip the blank page with a ready-made work-life balance template you can customize for your team in minutes.
Why these healthcare staff well-being questions matter
Workload and burnout are not abstract risks for healthcare organizations.
In the UK, the share of NHS staff describing themselves as burnt out rose to 31.47% in 2025, up from 30.26% in 2024, while 56.01% reported going to work despite not feeling well enough to perform their duties.
The same report found that positive employer action on wellbeing fell from 57.5% to 54.8% year over year.
| Question category | What it reveals | Action it enables |
| Workload and scheduling | Whether caseloads and shift patterns are sustainable | Rebalance assignments or adjust staffing ratios |
| Staffing and resources | Gaps in coverage, equipment, or onboarding | Prioritize hiring, cross-training, or supply fixes |
| Communication and leadership | Whether leadership closes the loop on concerns | Target manager coaching or huddle structure |
| Work-life balance | Whether schedules protect rest and personal time | Revisit time-off policy or scheduling practices |
| Optional well-being questions | General morale and support, without diagnosing individuals | Point staff toward existing wellness resources |
How to sequence a healthcare staff well-being survey
Group questions by topic and keep the survey anonymous so staff feel safe naming real problems. Place the optional well-being questions last, after workload and staffing, so you have built some trust first. Use survey logic to route follow-up questions only to the staff they apply to.
Send the survey through channels staff already use, such as email, a QR code in a break room, or a shift roster link. Native integrations connect responses to people data you already track, so results segment cleanly by unit or shift.
Frequently asked questions about healthcare staff well-being surveys
- How many questions should a healthcare staff well-being survey include?
- Should a healthcare staff well-being survey be anonymous?
- How is this different from a burnout survey?
- What if a question feels too sensitive for someone to answer?
Turn these questions into a survey with SurveyMonkey
You can copy these questions into a new survey, or start from a ready-made structure instead.
Use these in a template: start with the employee engagement survey template and layer in the well-being questions once your core survey is live. For the complete, step-by-step methodology behind any employee wellbeing survey, see the wellbeing survey guide on SurveyMonkey instead.
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