ArticleBMJ open2022
What are the solutions for well-being and burn-out for healthcare professionals? An umbrella realist review of learnings of individual-focused interventions for critical care.
Article in BMJ open, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 32 citations in OpenAlex.
- Interventions to reduce empathy-based stress and enhance compassionate care in mental health wards: a systematic review.BMC health services research · 2025Pooled it
- Interventions for enhancing resilience in breast cancer patients: a realist review.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2026Review
- Healthcare workers' perspectives on burnout complaints: exploring underlying dynamics using a complex systems approach.BMC health services research · 2026Article
- Promoting mental health in intensive care unit onboarding: a consensus-based iterative development of a competency-based framework.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- Unexplored dimension of shift work: the effects of late-early shifts on nurses and their wellbeing - a qualitative study.BMC nursing · 2025Article
- Effectiveness of workplace interventions for health promotion.The Lancet. Public health · 2025Review
- An Initial Scoping Review of Dysregulation of Mood, Energy, and Social Rhythms Syndrome (DYMERS) Regarding Burnout in Healthcare Professionals During COVID-19.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Review
- A systematic realist synthesis of digital interventions for enhancing mental health at work: contexts, mechanisms, and outcomes.International journal of mental health systems · 2025Review
- Burnout, working alliance, and ward atmosphere: A multisite study of mental health professionals and patients with schizophrenia.Stress and health : journal of the International Society for the Investigation of Stress · 2024Article
- Creating healthy workplaces in healthcare: Are we delaying progress by focusing on what we can do rather than what we should do?Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- Article
- Work-related burnout and its associated factors among midwives working at public hospitals in northwest Ethiopia: a multi-centered study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- What are the essential components to implement individual-focused interventions for well-being and burnout in critical care healthcare professionals? A realist expert opinion.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo determine what, how, for whom and under what conditions individual-focused interventions are effective to improve well-being and decrease burn-out among critical care healthcare professionals.
designThis study is an umbrella review that used the realist approach, using Realist and Meta-narrative Evidence Synthesis: Evolving Standards guidelines. PsycINFO, Web of Science, CINAHL, MEDLINE, Scopus, ClinicalTrials.gov and ISRCTN databases were searched for published and unpublished systematic reviews and meta-analyses literature between 2016 and 2020. The team appraised and extracted data and identified relationships between content, mechanism and outcomes (CMOs). Theory prepositions were developed using CMOs and were used to refine the existing programme.
resultsA total of 81 interventions from 17 reviews were mapped, including mindfulness interventions, cognitive-behavioural therapy, self-care and coping strategies. The revised programme theory determined that contextual factors such as ethnicity, workload, and work schedules play a crucial role in determining the effectiveness of interventions. Mechanisms including the interventions' interests, acceptance, and receptivity are also influential in determining engagement and adherence to the intervention. Findings suggest that the solution for burn-out is complex. However, it offers an optimistic view of tailoring and customising one or a combination of interventions, integrating structured education and components of emotional intelligence. Self-care, social support, awareness or mindfulness and self-efficacy are prime components to improve emotional intelligence and resilience for critical care healthcare professionals to improve well-being and decrease burn-out experience.
conclusionsThese findings provide realistic and reliable reporting of outcomes to better support implementation within the 'real world'. Future research such as seeking validation using expert opinions can provide further in depth understanding of hidden contextual factors, mechanisms and their interactions to provide a greater depth of knowledge ready for application with the critical care population.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.