Change fatigue in nursing: An integrative review

To synthesize the empirical and theoretical literature on change fatigue in nursing, including how change fatigue affects nurses, the nursing profession and strategies to prevent and overcome it.

Change fatigue refers to the overwhelming feelings of stress, exhaustion and burnout associated with rapid and continuous change across healthcare organizations. Change fatigue can affect nurses' wellbeing, yet there is a distinct lack of literature which synthesizes the relationship between cumulative organizational change and nurses' wellbeing.

Integrative review following Toronto and Remington and Whittemore and Knafl methodology.

Searches were conducted in CINAHL, Embase, Medline, APA PsycInfo, Scopus, Business Source Complete and ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global in January 2022.

A comprehensive search was conducted to identify literature on change fatigue in nursing. Included literature were critically appraised for methodological quality. Data from each article were abstracted and thematically analysed.

Twenty-six articles were included in this review, including 14 empirical studies, 10 theoretical papers and two literature reviews. Five main themes described in the literature included: definitions, preceding factors, associated behaviours, consequences and mitigation strategies for change fatigue.

This review highlights the impact of rapid and continuous change on nurses and nursing practice. Further research is needed to explore the relationship between change fatigue and burnout, understand how and why nurses withdraw or avoid change, and to develop a metric to measure change fatigue when considering new change initiatives.

Findings from this review generated an improved understanding of how change fatigue affects nurses, the nursing profession and strategies to prevent and overcome it. This paper provides practical recommendations for future research, direction for nursing educators and leaders, and encourages nurses to practice political agency with change management.

This project was an integrative review of the literature therefore no patient or public contribution was necessary.