Experiences of Burnout Among Nurse Anesthetists

The bottom line

Structured education about burnout awareness and coping skills was followed by a meaningful drop in emotional exhaustion among CRNAs at one trauma center, suggesting inexpensive, targeted programs can move the needle where burnout is severe. This is encouraging for teams that need a feasible first step while larger structural fixes are underway. As a small single-site project without a control group, it cannot show the program itself caused the improvement.

What the source found

Quality-improvement project at Level I trauma center; found 72% baseline burnout prevalence among CRNAs with emotional exhaustion most endorsed; structured burnout-awareness and coping-skills education program significantly reduced emotional exhaustion component.

Limitations and applicability

Single-institution QI project; small sample; no control group; limited generalizability.

Population and setting

CRNAs at one Level I trauma center

Used in FairShare guides

• Anesthesia Burnout Runs on Six Drivers — and Workload Is Only One of Them
• Evidence-Based Wellness

About this evidence

Research question / practical issue

How does this source inform Understanding Anesthesia Burnout and Evidence-Based Wellness for the population it studied?

Study design, evidence tier, and source class

Peer Reviewed Quality Improvement · primary source · evidence tier 2

Source type: Peer Reviewed Quality Improvement · primary · Evidence tier 2

Topics: Understanding Anesthesia Burnout, Evidence-Based Wellness

Audience: CRNAs, Wellness Leaders