Burnout in nursing during the COVID-19 pandemic: A bibliometric analysis of global research (2020-2023).

BACKGROUND: Burnout is an occupational phenomenon characterized by professionals experiencing a complete loss of concern and emotional connection towards the individuals they work with, resulting in their treatment in a detached or dehumanized manner. Extensive research has been conducted on burnout syndrome within the healthcare environment, however, prior to addressing this urgent public health issue, it is crucial to examine the existing literature on burnout among nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic and identify relevant variables explored in recent articles. METHODS: An extensive literature search was conducted in the Web of Science Core Collection database to identify all relevant studies on nursing burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic. RESULTS: According to the search strategy, a total of 1051 eligible publications were collected from the time of January 01, 2020 to December 31, 2023 in Web of Science Core Collection database. Finally, 946 eligible publications, including 865 articles and 81 reviews, were included in the subsequent analysis. In the inaugural year of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, a mere 48 articles were dedicated to examining the correlation between the pandemic and nursing staff burnout. However, this figure surged to 215 publications in 2021 and further escalated to an impressive count of 380 articles in 2022. CONCLUSION: In summary, this is the first comprehensive analysis of publications related to nursing burnout in the context of COVID-19 from 2020 to 2023 through bibliometrics. Our results show the COVID-19 pandemic has certainly had a significant impact on the occupational burnout of nurses.