The DOI matches its Crossref record; 87 of the 88 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Examining the relationship between burnout and empathy in healthcare professionals: A systematic review
Open accessAbstract
OBJECTIVE: Empathy and burnout are two related yet distinct constructs that are relevant to clinical healthcare staff. The nature of their relationship is uncertain and this review aimed to complete a rigorous, systematic exploration of the literature investigating the relationship between burnout and empathy in healthcare staff. DESIGN: A systematic review was conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidance. DATA SOURCES: Search terms (Burnout OR Burn-out OR "Burn out") AND (Empathy OR Empath*) enabled identification of studies investigating burnout and empathy in healthcare staff, using five electronic data bases (MEDLINE, PsycINFO, CINAHL Plus, PubMed, and SCOPUS). Manual searching amongst reference lists of eligible articles was also completed. REVIEW METHODS: Databases were searched for studies published in the English language, from inception to February 2017. Key inclusion criteria were: 1) participants who were nurses or medical professionals, 2) full written manuscript in English, 3) use of the Maslach Burnout Inventory to assess burnout and a standardized outcome measure for empathy, 4) quantitative methodology exclusively. RESULTS: Ten eligible studies were reviewed. Of those, seven were conducted in countries where English was not the first language. Eight of the studies provided empirical support for a negative relationship between empathy and burnout. One study provided support for a positive relationship between burnout and empathy. One study reported contradictory evidence with positive and negative correlations between different subscales of the empathy and burnout measures. In general, the quality of the studies was assessed to be good. However, some of the studies failed to provide information pertaining to sample size, with the reporting of data less than adequate from one study. CONCLUSIONS: There was consistent evidence for a negative association between burnout and empathy. This review avoided a common English-speaking country bias of some areas of the literature. Given that all of the studies reviewed were cross sectional, further research is necessary to establish causality.
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“Good communication skills of empathizing and expressing the understanding towards patients' biopsychosocial contexts and goals of treatments was found to be associated with better clinical outcomes, professional satisfaction, and might help protect HCP from burnout [27,47,49].”
From The efficacy of applying the Interpersonal Effectiveness skills of dialectical behavior therapy into communication skills workshop for clinical nurses (2023) · cites this paper as [47]
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Liberati, A., Altman, D. G., Tetzlaff, J., Mulrow, C., Gøtzsche, P. C., Ioannidis, J. P. A., Clarke, M., Devereaux, P. J., Kleijnen, J., & Moher, D. (2009) · PLoS Medicine · doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000100 · Cited by 28,164
The measurement of experienced burnout
Maslach, C., & Jackson, S. E. (1981) · Journal of Organizational Behavior · doi:10.1002/job.4030020205 · Cited by 14,496
The job demands-resources model of burnout.
Demerouti, E., Bakker, A. B., Nachreiner, F., & Schaufeli, W. B. (2001) · Journal of Applied Psychology · doi:10.1037/0021-9010.86.3.499 · Cited by 13,643
Liberati, A., Altman, D. G., Tetzlaff, J., Mulrow, C., Gøtzsche, P. C., Ioannidis, J. P. A., Clarke, M., Devereaux, P. J., Kleijnen, J., & Moher, D. (2009) · Annals of Internal Medicine · doi:10.7326/0003-4819-151-4-200908180-00136 · Cited by 10,349
Measuring individual differences in empathy: Evidence for a multidimensional approach.
Davis, M. H. (1983) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.44.1.113 · Cited by 10,272
Cohen, J. (1992) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037//0033-2909.112.1.155 · Cited by 8,771
The necessary and sufficient conditions of therapeutic personality change.
Rogers, C. R. (1957) · Journal of Consulting Psychology · doi:10.1037/h0045357 · Cited by 5,599 · cited 1×
“Rogers (1957) termed empathy as the ability of the clinician to sense the service user's private world as if it were their own, without losing the ‘as if’, hypothetical quality.”
Hospital Nurse Staffing and Patient Mortality, Nurse Burnout, and Job Dissatisfaction
Aiken, L. H. (2002) · JAMA · doi:10.1001/jama.288.16.1987 · Cited by 5,226
The functional architecture of human empathy
Decety, J., & Jackson, P. L. (2004) · Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews · doi:10.1177/1534582304267187 · Cited by 3,407 · cited 2×
“The clinical relevance of the emotive, cognitive, and behavioral dimensions have been demonstrated empirically with varied emphasis (Decety& Jackson, 2004; Eisenberg& Eggum, 2009; Mercer&Reynolds, 2002).”
BackgroundResultEmpathy and Moral Development: Implications for Caring and Justice
Raboteg-Šarić, Z., & Hoffman, M. L. (2001) · Contemporary Sociology A Journal of Reviews · doi:10.2307/3089337 · Cited by 2,413
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1 of the 88 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.
Research works printed but not linked: 2
- Meneghini, 2006, Adaptation and validation on an Italian sample of the balanced emotional empathy scale by Albert Mehrabian, Ric Psicol, 29, 123
- Wright, 2005, Burnout: A spiritual crisis, Nursing Standard, 19, 1
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Parental Burnout: What Is It, and Why Does It Matter?
Mikolajczak, M., Gross, J. J., & Roskam, I. (2019) · Clinical Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/2167702619858430 · Cited by 464
Strategic regulation of empathy
Weisz, E., & Cikara, M. (2021) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2020.12.002 · Cited by 217
A systematic review of research on empathy in health care
Nembhard, I. M., David, G., Ezzeddine, I., Betts, D., & Radin, J. M. (2022) · Health Services Research · doi:10.1111/1475-6773.14016 · Cited by 203
Barello, S., Caruso, R., Palamenghi, L., Nania, T., Dellafiore, F., Bonetti, L., Silenzi, A., Marotta, C., & Graffigna, G. (2021) · International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health · doi:10.1007/s00420-021-01669-z · Cited by 155
The development of empathy in the healthcare setting: a qualitative approach
Yu, C. C., Tan, L. L. C., Le, M. K., Tang, B., Liaw, S. Y., Tierney, T., Ho, Y. Y., Beng Eng Evelyn, L. I. M., Lim, D., Ng, R., et al. (2022) · BMC Medical Education · doi:10.1186/s12909-022-03312-y · Cited by 164
Metadata
- Authors
- Wilkinson, H., Whittington, R., Perry, L., & Eames, C.
- Affiliations
- University of Liverpool (GB)
- Mersey Care NHS Trust (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Whittington, Richard
- Venue
- Burnout Research
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2017-09
- Volume
- 6
- Pages
- 18-29
- ISSN
- 2213-0578 (ISSN-L)
- 2213-0586
- PMC
- PMC5534210
- OpenAlex
- W2727711984
- Cited by
- 509
- References
- 88
- Citations by year
- 2026: 49 · 2025: 79 · 2024: 69 · 2023: 63 · 2022: 69 · 2021: 72 · 2020: 52 · 2019: 41 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 2
- FWCI
- 5.16
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Burnout Research (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Liverpool John Moores University (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Healthcare professionals’ stress and burnout
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Stress and Burnout Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Empathy and Medical Education
- Keywords
- burnout, empathy, healthcare workers, nurses, physicians, Maslach Burnout Inventory, cross-cultural research
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