Interventions for burnout among health profession students and trainees: Systematic review and implications for well-being work.

BACKGROUND

Burnout among health professionals often begins in their education and training, yet knowledge about impactful interventions for students and trainees is limited.

PURPOSE: We investigated interventions for burnout in health profession students and trainees, excluding physicians-in-training.

METHODS

Following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses guidelines, we searched 11 databases for peer-reviewed articles and hand-searched articles contained in captured literature reviews. Articles were screened and extracted in Covidence and appraised using Joanna Briggs Institute tools.

FINDINGS: Of 4,535 articles screened, 31 met inclusion criteria. Interventions targeted nursing (51.6%), pharmacy (19.4%), social work (9.7%), and other professions (19.4%). Mindfulness-based strategies (67.7%) and curriculum change (29.0%) predominated. Over half (54.8%) reported significant reductions in at least one burnout dimension at one or more timepoints. Only nine studies (29.0%) were high quality.

DISCUSSION: This review indicates a need for higher-quality research designs and a greater focus on organization and system-level interventions.