Review article
Mental Health of Healthcare Professionals: Burnout and Moral Injury
Marko Ćurković
Senka Repovečki
Abstract
In contemporary healthcare systems, burnout has become almost ubiquitous, yet precisely because of its widespread use it often loses its discriminatory and explanatory force. Not all work-related suffering among healthcare professionals is of the same nature, nor can it reasonably be reduced to a single concept. Alongside burnout, moral distress and moral injury should therefore be distinguished as related but non-identical forms of professional suffering. At the core of burnout lies chronic depletion under the pressure of demands and the mismatch between the person and the job; at the core of moral distress, the inability to act upon what is believed to be right; and at the core of moral injury, a deeper wound to moral integrity, meaning, and trust. The COVID-19 pandemic did not create these phenomena, but it made them more visible and harder to ignore. A proportionate response therefore cannot remain limited to the individual level, but must also include staff empowerment, system responsibility, and the restoration of meaning in work. The well-being of healthcare professionals is not a secondary benefit, but one of the preconditions of ethically credible, high-quality, and sustainable healthcare.
Keywords
burnout, moral distress, moral injury, healthcare professionals, mental health, healthcare system
Hrčak ID:
349487
URI
Publication date:
10.7.2026.
Visits: 0 *