Impact of Nursing Practice Environments in Work Engagement and Burnout: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Background/Objectives: Work environment greatly affects nursing activities. This study aimed to explore the impact of the professional nursing environment on the risk of burnout symptomatology and work engagement (a burnout-moderating variable). Methods: A systematic review has been carried out. Selection criteria included cross-sectional studies that evaluated the professional nursing environment with the PES-NWI scale and also evaluated the levels of burnout and/or engagement in nurses. The PubMed, Scopus, Cinahl and WoS databases have been reviewed until November 2024, and potential articles manually selected by two researchers independently. Results: Eighty-four articles were selected, and after applying selection and exclusion criteria, 14 papers were finally included. Most studies were conducted in Europe. The quality evaluation was carried out using the JBI critical appraisal checklist. All retrieved studies focused on burnout, and only two works also evaluated work engagement. Conclusions: Overall, the trend indicates that a favorable professional environment was related to lower burnout symptoms, lower intentions to leave work and higher levels of work engagement. In addition, an adequate work environment was associated with less stress and higher quality of care, social support, professional development, leadership, nurse-doctor collaboration, nurse participation in hospital issues, staffing and job satisfaction.

Keywords: PES-NWI; burnout; nursing; work engagement; work environment.

Figure 1

Quality assessment of the fourteen studies included in the revision.

Figure 2

Flow diagram of the literature search process.