Characteristics of Occupational Burnout among Nurses of Various Specialties and in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic—Review

Abstract

Occupational burnout is particularly common among nurses due to their work being associated with stress, showing understanding, compassion, and commitment, along with the simultaneous need to maintain the necessary emotional distance. The aim of this review was to assess the occurrence and characterization of burnout among nurses working within neurology, geriatric care, intensive care units and with patients infected with the novel COVID-19 virus. PRISMA guidelines were used to conduct the review. The search for literature was limited to articles meeting the inclusion criteria and published from 2017 to 2022 in PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct, Google Scholar, and Wiley. A total of 768 articles from this category have been found. Ultimately, after in-depth analysis, 20 articles were included in the study. The group of respondents ranged from 49 to 3100 participants. According to the data, the percentages of nurses suffering from burnout in the presented research ranged from 14.3% to 84.7%, with the highest value of burnout among nurses who worked in the ICU during the COVID-19 pandemic. There are certain factors among nurses that significantly affect the occurrence of burnout. These include, among others, working time, age, exposure to infection and contact with infected patients, lack of training on COVID-19 prevention, providing care to an increased number of COVID-19 patients per shift, lack of personal protective equipment, lack of support of administration, lack of pay satisfaction, intrinsic motivation and turnover intention.

System of Work and Stress-Coping Strategies Used by Nurses of a Polish Hospital during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…It is specific to people who work in teams as part of their professional activities [ 18 , 19 ]. Meta-analyses of research findings confirm that the COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to an increase in burnout rates in groups of medical workers, especially nurses [ 20 ]. Polish nurses, regardless of the specialties presented, showed signs of occupational burnout even before the pandemic period [ 21 , 22 ].…”