In your professional experience, how widespread is burnout among healthcare workers, and what signs make it most evident?
In my personal experience, I have had to deal several times with difficulties in adapting to stressful working conditions, both personally and in my role as a nurse coordinator. The element that characterizes a “high-risk burnout setting” is the high clinical and care complexity of the patient, along with relational dynamics—both interprofessional and intraprofessional—that are not supported by effective communication processes. A sense of belonging decreases, affiliation is rejected, and cooperative and collaborative approaches are not adopted. The isolation of individual professionals while carrying out their duties during a work shift is one of the most evident signs of deep distress.
In your opinion, what factors contribute most to burnout in the current healthcare context?
Work rhythms and workloads certainly play a role, but I consider relational and communicative factors to be more significant: top-down leadership, lack of recognition of the individual professional’s contribution and that of the team in building and monitoring the patient’s care pathway, lack of involvement, and discontinuity or inconsistency in communication with caregivers and families.
Is emotional fatigue sufficiently discussed in healthcare settings? Which aspects are most often left unspoken?
Explicitly acknowledging that an individual may go through periods of emotional fatigue without this calling their professional competence into question. The possibility of accessing an emotional support service without necessarily requiring a clinical evaluation by occupational health physicians could already be a step forward in recognizing that emotional fatigue exists and culturally reducing the risk of stigmatizing those who suffer from it.
There is a saying that professionals do not leave the profession, but the organizations. In your opinion, what makes a healthcare worker stay—or pushes them to leave—today?
Sharing, participation, communication, and recognition. If the organization “takes care of those who care,” the individual who feels cared for will develop a relationship of trust with the organization that has taken responsibility for their well-being.
When a well-being 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?
I believe that “I don’t have time” stems from cultural legacies that do not allow healthcare professionals the possibility—or rather the necessity—of being recipients of care themselves. Personally, I think that too much value is still placed on the technical competence of professionals—undoubtedly essential for ensuring patient safety—at the expense of relational competence, which nurtures mutual trust in therapeutic relationships and protects professionals through emotional intelligence.
How can burnout among healthcare professionals affect the quality of patient care?
It has a heavy impact on the quality of individual care activities, on near-miss events and patient safety, on the proper functioning of teams—therefore also on organizational well-being—and even on customer satisfaction.
What should change, at an organizational or cultural level, to better protect the mental health of healthcare professionals in the coming years?
We need to accept that emotional suffering and dissatisfaction at work can be risk factors predisposing to burnout among healthcare workers, and make it practically accessible for everyone to seek help in addressing these conditions before they become a permanent state that progressively undermines motivation to carry out one’s professional role over time
Susanna Ponti
Second-Year Didactic Activities Coordinator – Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing (UNIFE)
Operational Unit for Professional Development and Organizational Models
Ferrara University Hospital – Ferrara Local Health Authority (AUSL)
“Cittadella Rocco” Community Health Center – Sector 15 – Mezzanine Floor