Certain Uncertainty

16Policy: The Path to Prevent Burnout

Jennifer Moss

After years of facing a confluence of health and economic fears, rapid societal shifts, environmental threats, and political dissonance, it makes sense that global mental health is on the decline. Combine this lack of personal well‐being with chronic workplace stress and you've got a workforce ripe for burnout. An unhealthy stew created by the pandemic, now at its boiling point.

And despite a desire to push all of this burnout talk into the background, it still requires more conversation. For example, a recent study of 10,000 knowledge‐based workers in seven different countries found that 70% experienced burnout in 2022. Healthcare hit peak levels of burnout—higher than any other sector. A study of 4,467 nurses found that 94% were experiencing burnout. Physician burnout is 1.7 times higher than it was pre‐pandemic and suicidal ideation increased by 1.5 times (14% of the 4,121 physicians surveyed).

Before the crisis, in 2019, burnout was defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as “a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterized by three dimensions:

• feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion;
• increased mental distance from one's job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one's job; and
• reduced professional efficacy.”¹

However, this particular crisis was more pronounced than others. It has left a permanent mark. Since the pandemic ...