TOPLINE:

Professional coaching helps to reduce physician burnout, while mindfulness-based interventions are more effective for nurses, midwives, and mixed healthcare professional groups. Both interventions were more effective when continued for more than 4 weeks.

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers conducted searches in PubMed and Scopus, two verified medical databases, through May 14, 2025.
• The analysis included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and cluster RCTs from healthcare professionals, including nurses and midwives, physicians, and a mixed group of healthcare professionals.
• The analysis included 99 studies (93 RCTs and 6 cluster RCTs) with 9330 total participants; one researcher extracted data, while a second independently verified the findings.
• Researchers measured mean scores for emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, personal accomplishment, and overall burnout.

TAKEAWAY:

• Professional coaching helped to reduce physician burnout (standardized mean difference [SMD], -0.37; 95% CI, -0.62 to -0.13) and depersonalization (SMD, -0.30; 95% CI, -0.42 to -0.19).
• Mindfulness-based interventions reduced burnout in nurses and midwives (SMD, -0.90; 95% CI, -1.46 to -0.34) and mixed healthcare professional groups (SMD, -0.40; 95% CI, -0.65 to -0.16).
• Interventions, including mindfulness-based and professional coaching programs, were more effective if sustained for more than 4 weeks.

IN PRACTICE:

“These findings will be valuable to policymakers developing support strategies, especially given the healthcare shortages and high rates of burnout, particularly among primary care physicians and nurses around the world,” the study authors wrote.

SOURCE:

The study was led by Ajay Gupta, MD, William Harvey Heart Centre, William Harvey Research Institute, Barts and London Medical School, Queen Mary University of London, London, England. It was published online in Annals of Internal Medicine.

LIMITATIONS:

Most trials were unblinded and used subjective outcomes. There was also variation across interventions and study groups, even after grouping by role.

DISCLOSURES:

The study was supported by Barts Charity grants G-002045 and G-002649. No other disclosures were reported.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.