Healthcare Staff Wellbeing, Burnout, and Patient Safety: A Systematic Review

Abstract

ObjectiveTo determine whether there is an association between healthcare professionals’ wellbeing and burnout, with patient safety.DesignSystematic research review.Data SourcesPsychInfo (1806 to July 2015), Medline (1946 to July 2015), Embase (1947 to July 2015) and Scopus (1823 to July 2015) were searched, along with reference lists of eligible articles.Eligibility Criteria for Selecting StudiesQuantitative, empirical studies that included i) either a measure of wellbeing or burnout, and ii) patient safety, in healthcare staff populations.ResultsForty-six studies were identified. Sixteen out of the 27 studies that measured wellbeing found a significant correlation between poor wellbeing and worse patient safety, with six additional studies finding an association with some but not all scales used, and one study finding a significant association but in the opposite direction to the majority of studies. Twenty-one out of the 30 studies that measured burnout found a significant association between burnout and patient safety, whilst a further four studies found an association between one or more (but not all) subscales of the burnout measures employed, and patient safety.ConclusionsPoor wellbeing and moderate to high levels of burnout are associated, in the majority of studies reviewed, with poor patient safety outcomes such as medical errors, however the lack of prospective studies reduces the ability to determine causality. Further prospective studies, research in primary care, conducted within the UK, and a clearer definition of healthcare staff wellbeing are needed.ImplicationsThis review illustrates the need for healthcare organisations to consider improving employees’ mental health as well as creating safer work environments when planning interventions to improve patient safety.Systematic Review RegistrationPROSPERO registration number: CRD42015023340.

A Daily Diary Approach to the Examination of Chronic Stress, Daily Hassles and Safety Perceptions in Hospital Nursing

“…Indeed, more broadly, a recent review in healthcare staff demonstrated that burnout and poor wellbeing were associated with poorer patient safety [65].…”

Prevalence of Burnout Syndrome in Emergency Nurses: A Meta-Analysis

“…Burnout has been linked to increased absenteeism, the abandonment of jobs, a reduction in health care quality, an increase in errors, and a reduced level of patient safety [52][53][54] ; thus, identifying and treating professionals with burnout are important. In addition, the presence of high burnout prevalence rates has been associated with poor quality of nursing care, increased number of patient falls, medication errors, and increased incidence of infections 55 -factors that adversely affect patient care.…”

Burnout mediates the association between depression and patient safety perceptions: a cross‐sectional study in hospital nurses

“…To develop interventions to reduce errors, a growing body of research has sought to understand underlying causes and contributing factors. One area has focused on the role that human factors such as staff burnout and depressive symptoms may play (Hall et al, 2016).…”

“…When it occurs, burnout may have wide-ranging consequences such as lower staff empathy and poorer patient experience (Vahey et al, 2004, Leiter et al, 1998, Passalacqua and Segrin, 2012. Several studies indicate that burnout may also be linked with clinical errors (Hall et al, 2016), although the majority of this research has been amongst doctors.…”