Healthcare workers suffer from work-related or occupational stress often resulting from high expectations coupled with insufficient time, skills and/or social support at work. This can lead to severe distress, burnout or physical illness, and finally to a decrease in quality of life and service provision. The costs of stress and burnout are high due to increased absenteeism and turnover.
We conducted a systematic search of the literature on preventing stress or burnout in healthcare workers. We then appraised the quality of the studies found and combined their results.
Person-directed interventions that include a cognitive-behavioural approach (e.g. coping skills training), combined with relaxation techniques or not, can be effective in reducing burnout, anxiety, stress and general symptoms in healthcare workers when compared to no intervention. Work-directed interventions that include communication or nursing delivery change can also be effective in reducing burnout, stress and general symptoms in healthcare workers when compared to no intervention. At best, the results of stress or burnout reducing interventions may still be apparent from six months to two years after the end of the interventions.
Most of the studies are small and of poor quality, and it is not clear how large a change in a stress or burnout score is meaningful.