In your professional experience, how widespread is burnout among healthcare workers, and what signs make it most evident?
Burnout is unfortunately no longer an exception, but a condition that affects a very high percentage of professionals. Beyond the classic signs of physical exhaustion, the most evident and concerning signal is depersonalization. Healthcare professionals lose the motivation to improve their work environment—for example, by not participating in improvement initiatives or remaining indifferent in the face of complex situations, without proposing solutions.
In your opinion, what factors contribute most to burnout in today’s healthcare context?
Certainly, workload and the inability to “manage” certain care situations (“there’s nothing that can be done anyway”) play a major role. This is compounded by increasing care complexity and technology that often complicates rather than streamlines processes. As a tutor, I notice that bureaucratic burden takes time away from relationships; colleagues feel crushed between the need to provide high-quality care and the chronic shortage of resources and staff.
Is emotional fatigue sufficiently discussed in the healthcare context? Which aspects are most often left unspoken?
No, what remains hidden is the sense of guilt for not having done enough and the weight of others’ suffering that accumulates over time. There is still a culture of the “hero” professional who cannot give in; this taboo prevents people from processing the painful experiences they go through, leading to emotional isolation that harms both the professional and the team.
There is talk of professionals who do not leave the profession, but the organizations. In your opinion, what makes a healthcare worker stay—or what pushes them to leave today?
Many nurses still love caregiving, but can no longer tolerate disorganized work environments. When I meet colleagues during internships, I perceive that frustration does not stem from patient contact, but from the feeling of being just a cog in a system that does not value their specific skills or mental health. What pushes them to leave includes high turnover, sometimes exhausting shifts, and limited professional growth. What makes them stay, instead, is almost always the quality of the team and the relationship with patients. If there is a supportive environment (working well as a team) and leadership that listens, professionals endure.
When a wellbeing program is proposed, the most common response is ‘I don’t have time.’ How do you interpret this lack of time: is it only an organizational issue or also a cultural one?
On the one hand, nurse-to-patient ratios are often inadequate (an organizational issue); on the other, there is a culture that views “taking care of oneself” as a luxury. Saying “I don’t have time” may also be a defense mechanism—pausing to reflect on one’s wellbeing would mean acknowledging a level of suffering that many are not ready to face.
How can burnout among healthcare professionals affect the quality of patient care?
A professional under stress represents a risk to patient safety. They are less attentive to both patients and themselves (e.g., medication errors and loss of humanistic care). Care may be perceived as mechanical and lacking the empathetic attention necessary to identify the patient’s real needs.
What should change, at an organizational or cultural level, to better protect the mental health of healthcare professionals in the coming years?
A paradigm shift is needed: the mental health of healthcare workers must be considered an essential component in building balanced and fulfilling teams. It is necessary to invest in structured, ongoing support programs—not one-off initiatives—restoring value to self-reflection and shared experiences.
Michela Zanandrea
Nurse, lecturer, and third-year coordinator of the Nursing Degree Program at the University of Ferrara. Facilitator of Narrative Medicine workshops (SIMeN).