Emergency units and COVID-19: Burnout, and empathy reported by nursing professionals and perceived by patients.
Daiane Silva Lopes Viana, Julia Yaeko Kawagoe
PMID 38055466WHAT IT FOUND
Most nurses reported burnout increased during the pandemic, but objective scores showed low emotional exhaustion and high professional accomplishment.
Self-reported empathy correlated with better burnout scores, yet patient-perceived empathy did not, suggesting nurses' self-assessments may not reflect patient experience.
Key findings
01While 86.96% of nurses reported the pandemic increased their burnout, the majority scored in the low range for emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, and the high range for professional accomplishment.
02Nurses' self-reported empathy was significantly correlated with their own burnout scores, but patient-perceived empathy showed almost no correlation with nurses' emotional exhaustion or depersonalization.
03Patients with neurological diagnoses perceived significantly lower empathy from nurses compared to patients with infectious diseases.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study was conducted in a single public emergency unit in São Paulo, so results may not generalize to other settings. The cross-sectional design cannot determine cause and effect or track changes over time. There was no comparison of burnout or empathy levels before the pandemic, only a retrospective self-report of impact. Risk factors for burnout, such as workload and specific working conditions, were not evaluated.
Declared interests
The authors declare no conflicts of interest. A license was acquired for the use of the MBI-HSS instrument.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that nurses' self-reported empathy accurately reflects patient satisfaction or care quality. The study found that while nurses' own empathy scores correlated with their burnout levels, patients' perceptions of empathy did not correlate with the nurses' emotional exhaustion or depersonalization scores.