Addressing Professional Burnout in Primary Care: System-Level Strategies for Sustainable Well-being
Ferdinando PandRAZZUOLI and Özden GÖKDEMIR
Professional burnout among primary care physicians has reached critical levels, posing a threat to clinicians’ well-being, patient safety, and the sustainability of the healthcare system. Emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced professional accomplishment are increasingly reported, driven by excessive workload, administrative burden, and limited professional autonomy. Despite widespread recognition of the problem, responses remain fragmented, and preventive strategies are often confined to individual coping interventions rather than systemic reform.To identify key risk factors and manifestations of professional burnout in primary care. To explore its association with compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue. To discuss the theoretical framework of the so-called socio-affective training To explore evidence-based organisational interventions that mitigate burnout and strengthen workforce resilience. To design practical, scalable strategies for integrating mental health promotion into everyday primary care practice and policy.Teaching method Interactive discussions will be combined with short evidence summaries and small-group exercises. Participants will engage in case-based scenario analysis, guided reflection, and collaborative problem-solving. The workshop will also utilise a structured “system mapping” tool to visualise the links between policy, organisational culture, and physician well-being. Workshop schedule Introduction (10 min): Framing burnout as a system-level challenge. Evidence briefing (10 min): Review of prevalence, drivers, and successful interventions. Group work (25 min): Participants co-develop feasible strategies for their national or institutional contexts. Debrief and synthesis (10 min): Sharing key insights and barriers. Wrap-up (5 min): Summary and actionable takeaways.Participants will acquire practical frameworks and policy tools to address professional burnout through organisational and system-level interventions. They will leave with draft action plans adaptable to national contexts and access to a shared resource repository.This workshop reframes professional burnout as a collective, systemic issue requiring coordinated leadership, supportive organisational structures, and cross-sector collaboration. By shifting focus from individual resilience to institutional accountability, it aims to empower primary care professionals to drive sustainable change in workforce well-being.
