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Abstract
Purpose: To identify the strategies and interventions U.S. health systems implemented to reduce burnout and increase employee well-being during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A concurrent design included a scoping review of published literature on burnout interventions implemented for healthcare workers during COVID-19 and expert interviews with healthcare administrators involved in COVID-19 burnout response efforts (N = 5). Scoping review protocols included a-priori inclusion criteria, search terms, database selection, and data abstraction (N = 21 articles). Results: The scoping review identified eight types of interventions; spanning individual, organizational, and community systems. Qualitative data supported scoping review findings and uncovered themes related to communication, role shifting, and wellness initiatives as forms of burnout prevention and reduction. Conclusion: As COVID-19 continues, so too will worker stress, burden, and burnout. Health systems worked quickly and creatively to address the needs of the frontline healthcare workforce, yet more work is needed to sustain efforts over time.
Keywords: workforce burnout, burnout prevention, front-line workforce, COVID-19, scoping review, burnout interventions
Points for Practitioners
1. Burn-out interventions identified typically included multi-pronged strategies that targeted multiple systems to address healthcare workforce needs at the individual, organizational, and community level.
2. Eight types of interventions were commonly deployed to address burnout: Enhanced Communication, Wellness Initiatives, Individual Counseling or Support, Group/Unit Counseling and Support, Providing Goods and Services, Peer Supports, Access to Adequate PPE and Supplies, and Expanded Workplace Flexibility.
3. Expert interviews supported results from the scoping review but further highlighted the shifting role of behavioral health providers to supporting their colleagues, the impact of systemic racism on providers of color, and increased caregiving responsibilities impacting the healthcare workforce on the frontlines of COVID-19.
Since mid-March 2019, the United States has grappled with how best to navigate the dayto-day and lasting impacts of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). As of April 2021, the U.S. leads the world in confirmed cases (31,499,032 people) and nearly 600,000 deaths (Johns Hopkins University, 2021). COVID-19 has exacerbated physical health conditions, socioeconomic vulnerabilities, and interpersonal stressors for millions of people (Pfefferbaum & North, 2020) and has disproportionately placed burden on communities of color (Hooper et al., 2020; Garnier et al., 2021; Yancy, 2020). The nature of this historic global and national emergency has...