Work Environment and Health Care Workforce Well-Being: Mental Health and Burnout in Medically Underserved Communities Prone to Disaster

Health care workers (n = 71) completed an online survey or participated in one of five focus groups. Clinical cutoff scores revealed concerning levels of depression (16%), anxiety, and burnout (49%). Qualitative responses (n = 172) yielded two themes: work environment and well-being. Addressing burnout requires an ecological systems mindset, which accounts for complex stressors present in individual providers’ lives (large-scale disasters and personal stressors), agency-level factors (scheduling and workload), and larger social and contextual administrative factors (allocating time for self-care through scheduling and billing codes). ( Am J Public Health. 2024;114(S2):S156–S161. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2023.307478 )