# Burnout in Infection Control Practitioners During Public Health Crisis Events: A Mixed Methods Systematic Review Protocol

## TL;DR

This study will review how infection control workers experience burnout during major health crises like pandemics.

## Contribution

The study introduces a mixed-methods systematic review protocol to explore burnout in infection control practitioners during global health crises.

## Key findings

- Burnout in infection control practitioners is linked to public health crisis events like pandemics.
- The review will use a convergent integrated mixed-methods approach to analyze both qualitative and quantitative data.
- Findings will help healthcare professionals and policymakers understand and address burnout in this field.

## Abstract

Infection prevention and control work environments are highly complex in nature and have long been associated with crisis events including serious infectious disease outbreaks. The role of infection control practitioners shifted exponentially during the COVID-19 pandemic and with this rapid and nebulous change came anxiety, emotional exhaustion and ultimately burnout. Burnout at work generally occurs as a response to chronic and prolonged exposure to emotionally challenging events, causing emotional exhaustion, feelings of cynicism, and lack of accomplishment at work. This systematic review aims to investigate burnout in infection control practitioners during public health crisis events (major outbreaks, epidemics, and pandemics) in upper-middle and high-income countries on a global scale.

A mixed-methods systematic review will be carried out and will include qualitative, quantitative and primary mixed-methods studies that investigate the different elements of burnout, during public health crisis events. After an initial scoping literature search, up to six databases will be searched for studies on burnout in relation to infection prevention practitioners. Study quality will be checked using standardised JBI critical appraisal tools. The proposed review will follow the JBI convergent integrated approach for mixed methods systematic reviews. Following data extraction, quantitative data will then be converted into ‘qualitized data’ in the form of textual descriptions.

It is well documented that adverse conditions during public health crisis events can lead to burnout. This systematic review will investigate of burnout in infection control practitioners in upper-middle and high-income countries during public health crisis events. The findings will inform healthcare professionals, senior policy makers and researchers and will help contribute to a richer understanding of burnout and associated factors in infection control practitioners.

PROSPERO 2024 CRD42024508996.