Healthcare worker burnout reached 40 percent in January, up from 32 percent in 2019, a new study from researchers at Durham, N.C.-based Duke Health found.
The study, published Sept. 21 in JAMA Network Open, relied on data from electronic surveys conducted over three years with more than 107,000 responses healthcare workers at 76 community hospitals within two large health systems in the U.S. The surveys covered safety culture, workforce well-being and engagement, and emotional exhaustion metrics.
Two key findings:
- Nurses had the highest levels of emotional exhaustion, spiking to 49 percent in 2022 from 41 percent prior to the pandemic.
- Physicians reported a 32 percent emotional exhaustion rate before the pandemic, which declined to 28 percent during the first year. It then shot to 38 percent during the second.