3 Cultural Shifts to Prevent Provider Burnout in the OR

Provider burnout is not a new phenomenon - it’s a compounding challenge that has built up over years of systemic pressure. The COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented strain to frontline clinicians, but many health systems continue to grapple with the long-term consequences of chronic overwork, administrative overload, and emotionally taxing environments. Burnout pressures remain especially intense in high-stakes specialties like surgery, where traditional norms discourage emotional expression, demand perfection, and create barriers to open communication.  

Surgeons face some of the most acute forms of clinician burnout¹ across the healthcare workforce. A 2019 national survey published in Annals of Surgery² found that over 40% of U.S. surgeons reported symptoms of burnout. Some studies estimate even higher rates among surgical residents, with figures exceeding 50%.³ Without intervention, provider burnout in surgery will carry forward - fueling emotional fatigue, disengagement, and attrition from the profession.  

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention highlight that burnout levels have slightly improved from pandemic peaks but still exceed pre-2019 baselines⁴ - suggesting the problem is not just situational but structural. Solving provider burnout requires more than wellness seminars or temporary morale boosts. It calls for systemic shifts in how surgical teams work, communicate, and learn.  

Cultural transformation, supported by smart technologies, is essential for creating an environment where surgeons can thrive. The following three cultural shifts offer a framework for health system leaders ready to tackle provider burnout - not just as an individual burden but as a shared organizational responsibility.  

Cultural Shift to Reduce Provider Burnout #1: Promote Psychological Safety 

Traditional hierarchies remain deeply entrenched in many surgical environments. These structures create an atmosphere where surgeons feel pressure to project unwavering confidence and emotional detachment. Providers and team members including nurses and support staff often hesitate to voice patient safety concerns or ask questions. The result is a culture of silence and a lack of psychological safety⁵ that fuels provider burnout. 

Psychological safety plays a critical role in high-stakes environments like the operating room. Teams that feel safe to speak up engage in more open dialogue, learn more effectively, provide higher quality care, and build greater resilience. Harvard Business School research⁶ shows that psychologically safe teams tend to innovate more, make fewer errors, and report lower levels of burnout. 

Leaders can promote this culture by introducing structured pre-operative and post-operative briefings that give every team member the opportunity to contribute, raise concerns, and ask questions. Reinforcing these practices consistently helps shift authority toward a model that values diverse perspectives and shared accountability. 

Cultural Shift to Reduce Provider Burnout #2: Reduce Cognitive Overload 

Surgical teams routinely face overwhelming workloads that extend far beyond the operating table. Surgeons must balance complex clinical decision-making with burdensome documentation, administrative demands, and quality improvement initiatives. This juggling act is often performed using outdated systems that create unnecessary friction. The result is a fragmented workflow that heightens provider stress, impairs focus, and leaves little room for recovery. 

Cognitive overload isn’t just an inconvenience - it’s a serious threat to provider performance and well-being. Decision fatigue, documentation burden, and inefficient communication systems have all been shown to correlate with provider burnout. As providers stretch themselves thin across disjointed tasks, the risk of errors rises and the emotional toll compounds. This model is unsustainable, especially in surgical settings where precision and mental clarity are non-negotiable. 

Intelligent workflows, supported by AI and automation, can help providers reclaim time and energy. AI-powered clinical intelligence platforms provide structured, objective feedback without the need for hours of manual analysis. Predictive analytics can proactively identify workflow inefficiencies or high-risk clinical scenarios, allowing leaders to intervene before stress escalates into burnout. Even relatively small improvements can have an outsized impact. 

Cultural Shift to Reduce Provider Burnout #3: Drive Real-Time Learning 

Many institutions continue to rely on outdated, retrospective surgical case review models that focus on blame, despite growing awareness of provider burnout. These reviews often occur well after an adverse event and take place in environments where psychological safety is minimal. Clinicians who perceive feedback as punitive or damaging to their reputation often withdraw emotionally or disengage from improvement efforts. This response erodes trust, stifles progress, and intensifies provider burnout for those already under strain. 

Effective case review processes prioritize learning instead of fault. Real-time or near-real-time surgical video review⁷ gives teams the opportunity to reflect while details are still fresh. Teams can act on this feedback more easily and it carries less emotional weight. Objective data also reveals systemic contributors to complications or errors, which helps shift attention away from individual blame and toward broader improvements in care delivery. 

Leaders play a crucial role in creating feedback-rich, non-punitive environments. Departments need to build in protected time for case review, establish ground rules that support psychological safety, and apply structured frameworks to guide each session. AI-driven tools can also play a key role in maintaining psychologically safe environments⁸ that reduce provider burnout.  

Building a Sustainable Culture to Reduce Provider Burnout 

Reducing provider burnout goes beyond resilience training. Success depends on transforming the underlying culture of surgical teams. Psychological safety, intelligent workflows, and a learning-centered feedback process can create environments where clinicians thrive. When leaders take these shifts seriously, they lay the foundation for more sustainable and high-performing surgical teams. 

For additional information, review our white paper, “Under Pressure: Addressing Burnout and Building Resilience in Surgical Teams.”¹  

Recommended Reading

1. Surgical Safety Technologies. (2025). Under Pressure: Addressing Burnout and Building Resilience in Surgical Teams [white paper]. https://www.surgicalsafety.com/resources/addressing-burnout-and-resilience-in-surgical-teams

2. Shanafelt, T.D., Balch, C.M., Bechamps, G.J., et., al. (2009). Burnout and career satisfaction among American surgeons. Ann Surg.;250(3), 463-471. https://doi.org/10.1097/sla.0b013e3181ac4dfd   

3. Low, Z.X., Yeo, K.A., Sharma, V.K., et., al. (2019). Prevalence of Burnout in Medical and Surgical Residents: A Meta-Analysis. Int J Environ Res Public Health;16(9),1479. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16091479    

4. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2023). Health workers Face a Mental Health Crisis. https://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/health-worker-mental-health/index.html  

5. Surgical Safety Technologies. (2025, May 8). Psychological Safety in Healthcare Drives High-Performance Teams - and AI Should Support It [blog post]. https://www.surgicalsafety.com/blog/psychological-safety-in-healthcare-ai-should-support-it     

6. Delizonna, L. (2017). High-Performing Teams Need Psychological Safety: Here’s How to Create It. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2017/08/high-performing-teams-need-psychological-safety-heres-how-to-create-it  

7. Surgical Safety Technologies. (2024, November 4). Surgical Video Review: A Gold Mine for New Residents and Fellows [blog post]. https://www.surgicalsafety.com/blog/surgical-video-review-gold-mine-for-new-residents-fellows  

8. Surgical Safety Technologies. (2025). AI in Healthcare: Maintaining Psychological Safety [fact sheet]. https://www.surgicalsafety.com/resources/ai-in-healthcare-maintaining-psychological-safety