Letter: Heroes of the Hospice, but at What Cost? Front Line Hospice Multidisciplinary Team Views on Care Provision during the Pandemic and the Effect of Providing Care on Well-Being and Burnout

Burnout of healthcare professionals in supportive and palliative care: a summary of recent literature

“…All reported on the negative effect of overstepping personal boundaries or infringing personal values: due to COVID restrictions [11,12]; care for a patient with whom there was a personal connection [32]; especially difficult cases, such as difficult family situations, young patients or 'bad deaths' [26]; or just the sheer workload and demands of job [27]. In contrast, these studies also mentioned factors important to prevent burnout: the ability to make a valuable contribution to a patient or their family [11,29]; maintain a health work-life balance [29] and have self-awareness, reflect, learn and adapt [12,27]; working in a supportive, like-minded team [28,29]; under a compassionate protective leader; in a committed organization promoting staff wellbeing and open communication [12,28].…”

“…Six of the studies found were qualitative studies with three of them using interviews; one using focus groups [32]; one used a combination of focus groups and an interview [29]; and one used both questionnaires and interviews [12] (Table 1). All studies aimed to obtain insight in reasons for burnout and identify possible angles for support and burnout reduction.…”

“…There were no studies that reviewed the effects of burnout (on patients or other healthcare professionals). There were two studies that tried to give insight on burnout during the COVID pandemic [11,12].…”

“…Of the studies found, one study combined questionnaires with qualitative research [12], as mentioned before. Two studies, explicitly divided burnout into personal, work-related, and patientrelated burnout factors [10,21]; all other studies, while focusing on different aspects of burnout did not make this differentiation.…”