A survey of US healthcare workers (HCWs) before and during COVID-19 reveals that emotional exhaustion (EE)—a problem even before the pandemic—has worsened, threatening to compromise patient care and fuel staff turnover.

In the study, published today in JAMA Network Open, a team led by Duke University investigators analyzed 107,122 responses to the electronic Safety, Communication, Organizational Reliability, Physician, and Employee Burnout and Engagement (SCORE) survey fielded in September 2019, September 2020, and September 2021 to January 2022.

Respondents included HCWs in clinical and nonclinical roles at 76 community hospitals within two large healthcare systems. The most commonly reported role was nursing (40.9%), and 16.9% had worked less than 1 year at their workplace, while 56.2% reported 1 to 10 years and 26.9% 11 years or more.