New Publication: Working Conditions, Burnout, and the U.S. Healthcare Workforce

Agard Research Associates is pleased to share a new research publication by Shruthi Nandakumar, titled Working Conditions and Burnout Among U.S. Healthcare Workers (2002-2022): An Analysis with Implications for Federal Workforce Policy. The report is paired with an interactive dashboard, also built by Nandakumar, that lets readers move through two decades of healthcare worker burnout data and see the patterns for themselves.

What the report asks

The report is organized around three questions: (1) how burnout prevalence among U.S. healthcare workers has changed between 2002 and 2022, (2) which working conditions most strongly predict burnout once every other condition is accounted for, and (3) what policy actions those patterns recommend. The analysis draws on the "Quality of Worklife" module of the General Social Survey, a nationally representative instrument fielded every four years since 2002 that carries the core burnout measure used by the CDC and other federal agencies.

Burnout rose sharply after the pandemic

The headline empirical result is a steep increase in burnout following the pandemic. Frequent burnout among healthcare workers, which had held roughly steady for a decade, climbed from 23.3% in 2018 to 28.4% in 2022, a relative increase of 21%. On the broader measure that counts any reported burnout symptoms, prevalence reached 50.6%, the highest figure in any wave of the survey since 2002.

Three working conditions drive most of it

To identify what drives that burnout, the analysis uses multivariable logistic regression across six working conditions. Three stand out as the dominant and statistically significant predictors: pace of work, workload, and supervisor support, with pace of work the strongest of the three. Respect at work, workplace safety, and promotion fairness did not reach significance once those three were held constant, a result that helps locate where intervention is most likely to pay off.

The surge is about working conditions, not the pandemic itself

The most consequential finding for policy is what happens to the time trend once working conditions are taken into account. After the six conditions are controlled for, the survey-year effects disappear, which means the post-COVID rise is explained entirely by measurable worsening in specific working conditions rather than by the pandemic as a standalone event. Healthcare workers also reported more burnout than all other workers on both measures in 2022. The implication is direct: responses aimed at workload, pace, and supervisory support are likely to do more than general wellness programs that leave those conditions in place.

Why this matters

This research reflects Agard Research Associates' commitment to rigorous, evidence-based scholarship on the conditions of American working life. By treating burnout as the measurable product of working conditions that policy can change rather than as an individual shortcoming, the publication offers practical direction for the administrators, researchers, and policymakers responsible for the health of the healthcare workforce.

View report

View dashboard