From Compassion Fatigue to Crisis: A Systematic Analysis of Burnout Prevalence and Intervention Efficacy Among Nursing Professionals

Abstract

This article explores the impact of burnout prevalence and intervention efficacy among nursing professionals. Nursing burnout is a severe occupational healthcare crisis that has shaken the entire healthcare structures of the world, and the current prevalence rates of 35-40% have not improved much despite the post-pandemic recovery efforts. This is a systematic review of burnout and compassion fatigue prevalence in nursing professionals and an analysis of intervention measures aimed to reduce these two phenomena. The article is based on the evidence synthesis of the scope, determinants, and evidence-based interventions to nursing burnout, drawing on recent meta-analyses and longitudinal research (2018-2024). The results indicate significantly high prevalence rates by specialty, with the oncology, mental health, and critical care nurses having a prevalence rate of over 40 percent in most regions. Individual-level intervention programmes like mindfulness-based, resilience training or the organizational and multicomponent approach are less likely to achieve significant effects, but their effectiveness is higher in eliminating systemic root causes. Burnout rates after Covid-19 are still 16.4% higher than the levels before the pandemic, which says that we are still in a crisis, and the solution to it should be structural and not superficial. The conclusion of this review includes the recommendation of implementing comprehensive and sustainable interventions that would resolve individual and organizational factors that lead to nursing burnout.

Keywords: nursing burnout, compassion fatigue, intervention strategies, systematic review, occupational health, nurse wellbeing, post-COVID healthcare, organizational interventions.