(118) Breaking the Burnout Cycle: A Meta-Analysis of Interventions for Healthcare Professionals

Introduction: Physician burnout, a growing concern, leads to increased job stress, depression, and physician suicide. It has been linked to negative patient outcomes, such as higher rates of medical errors and mortality. Despite numerous studies comprehensive evaluations of effective interventions are lacking. We conducted a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions on reducing physician burnout as measured by the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), a commonly used burnout scale.

Methods: We performed a MEDLINE search using the terms - (((((((("Physicians"[Mesh]) OR "Physician Assistants"[Mesh]) OR "Nurse Practitioners"[Mesh]) AND "Critical Care"[Mesh]) OR "Intensive Care Units"[Mesh]) OR "Emergency Service, Hospital"[Mesh]) AND "Burnout, Psychological"[Mesh]) OR "Burnout, Professional"[Mesh]) OR "Resilience, Psychological"[Mesh] to identify RCTs. Three reviewers (DK, RA, and RR) screened studies. Data extraction was performed by DK and RA. A meta-analysis was performed for the three components of the MBI using weighted mean difference (MD) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for continuous variables using an inverse variance test.

Results: The search yielded 586 studies of which 9 (7 RCTs and 2 crossover) studies were included in the full text review. Complete data from 3 RCTs were available for meta-analysis and included 151 subjects. Interventions included mindfulness and coaching and ranged from 4-52 weeks. All components of the MBI improved with interventions: emotional exhaustion -5.38 [95% CI [-7.68, -3.08], p< 0.00001], depersonalization -2.48 [95% CI [-3.08, -1.88], p< 0.00001], and personal accomplishment 2.37 [95% CI [1.72, 3.03], p< 0.00001].

Conclusions: Our meta-analysis demonstrates that targeted interventions can significantly reduce physician burnout across multiple dimensions measured by the MBI, decreasing depersonalization and emotional exhaustion while increasing personal accomplishment. These findings underscore the importance of supporting the mental well-being and professional satisfaction of healthcare providers in high-stress medical environments through targeted interventions.