Integrated systems integrating self-care: Supporting the prevention and mitigation of team member burnout and compassion fatigue.

Abstract

Introduction: Health care providers are among the highest risk professionals in Western culture(s) for burnout and compassion fatigue (BO/CF). Although they report being wholly committed to what they do, they are often overwhelmed by the intensity and volume of their clinical responsibilities and patient panels, workplace and interdisciplinary politics, administrative demands, and a tendency to underreport personal struggles or seek help. Trends show, too, that these sequelae are becoming even more prevalent-not less-over recent years.

Method: After reviewing literature for this conceptual article across both behavioral/mental health and biomedical/physical health fields, we determined that conventional wisdom regarding the prevention and mitigation of BO/CF-that is, calling for providers to engage in generic self-care practices like sleep hygiene, physical activity, strategic time management, and appropriate boundary-setting-is not enough.

Results: Preventing and mitigating burnout and compassion fatigue through multisystemic approaches is superior to monomodal approaches that focus solely on individual self-care practices. This article expands the scope to integrate baseline individual self-care with empirically supported strategies across other system levels (e.g., workplace teams, operational/administrative care structures) designed to synchronously-and holistically-promote provider health and well-being.

Discussion: Purposeful efforts to attend to BO/CF prevention and mitigation across multiple system levels in integrated care contexts are both indicated and essential. Doing so will promote the health and well-being of our providers and facilitate the delivery of high(est) quality care to the patients and families we serve. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).