Ethical conflict leads to health care worker burnout

Various factors, including long hours and stressful working conditions, cause a high rate of turnover and burnout among U.S. health care workers.

A new study published in Nature from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health has looked into another factor: ethical conflicts.

The research team examined how burnout is exacerbated by exposure to events and actions that go against deeply held moral beliefs. Specifically, they looked into events where health care workers acted—or failed to act—in a way that violated their values or beliefs, witnessed an event that violated their values or beliefs, or experienced betrayal from a peer or authority figure in a high-stakes situation.

They found:

• The majority of health care workers witnessed or experienced an event that violated their morals or beliefs.
• Health care workers who witnessed these events were 66% more likely to intend to leave their jobs.
• Workers who participated in events that violated their beliefs were 38% more likely to experience burnout.

“Despite the significance of these issues, existing health care leadership and policymakers have yet to adequately address the role of ethical conflicts on the epidemic of burnout plaguing our health care systems,” said Timothy Usset, a researcher in the School of Public Health, health care chaplain and lead author. “As health care systems face unprecedented workforce shortages, these findings underscore the urgent need for systemic changes.”

Future research will focus on assessing and developing structural improvements and organizational interventions to improve health care worker well-being.