Influence of burnout on patient safety: systematic review and meta-analysis (August 2019)

Summary

Several factors can compromise patient safety, such as ineffective teamwork, failed organisational processes and the physical and psychological overload of health professionals. Studies about associations between burnout and patient safety have shown different outcomes.

In this paper, published by Medicina (Kaunas), a team in Brazil analysed twenty-one studies, most of them demonstrating an association between the existence of burnout and the worsening of patient safety. High levels of burnout is more common among physicians and nurses and it is associated with external factors such as: high workload, long journeys and ineffective interpersonal relationships.