OVERVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC PRODUCTION ON BURNOUT SYNDROME WITHIN THE VIRTUAL HEALTH LIBRARY PORTAL

Abstract

Burnout syndrome, identified in the 1970s, encompasses a vast body of scientific literature. Thus, the present study aimed to analyze research trends on professional burnout through a bibliometric analysis of articles indexed in the Virtual Health Library Portal. The initial search identified 1,584 records, of which 1,142 scientific articles were selected for analysis after removing duplicates and non-pertinent documents. The methodology employed Bradford's, Lotka's, and Zipf's Laws, in addition to evaluating journal quality (CiteScore, SJR, JCR) and author productivity (h-index). The 1,142 articles were distributed across 19 databases of the VHL, with a predominance of LILACS (65.5%). The chronology of publications demonstrates a constant increase since the year 2000, with a significant dispersion across 409 journals, of which a small portion concentrated the majority of articles, confirming Bradford's Law. Regarding authorship, of the 3,583 authors identified, only 28 presented five or more publications, aligning with Lotka's Law. The co-occurrence analysis of 2,269 keywords (217 with a frequency equal to or greater than five) allowed the identification of 12 main thematic clusters. These clusters address the dimensions of professional burnout, the mental health of workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, the quality of life in different groups, studies focused on nursing and medical students and professionals, psychological stress in nursing students, anxiety and depression in professionals in internship and residency programs, coping strategies, working conditions and occupational health, and occupational stress in higher education teachers. Notably, a gap in research related to professional burnout in technical-administrative staff of public higher education institutions was identified, a result consistent with previous findings in another database (SciELO). Given this, the importance of future investigations that explore other databases to corroborate and expand the results obtained in the present study is emphasized.