Ensuring palliative care to critically ill patients is also vital to support the ICU staff

Although intensive Care Unit (ICU) personnel share a moral imperative to provide palliative care, their compassionate intentions are often undermined by communication constraints, structurally inadequate systems and care environments, for example electronic health record demands superseding time spent with a dying patient, or family separation at the time of death. Moral distress and burnout among ICU healthcare professionals are a growing global concern, exacerbated by the complex demands of critical care settings. High patient acuity, emotional strain, ethical dilemmas, and exposure to death and suffering may present extraordinary pressures on ICU professionals. Effective interprofessional teamwork practices can be hindered by challenges in communication, unclear roles and responsibilities, and the constant reconfiguration of new teams in the ICU. Teamwork affects not only patient outcomes but also staff wellbeing and burnout rates. Understanding modifiable factors on moral distress and burnout and developing strategies to improve staff wellbeing and patient outcomes is essential. While several factors have been studied, the relationship between palliative care integration, moral distress, and burnout has not yet been adequately explored. This synthesis explores recent research on the interplay between stressors or interventions and clinician burnout in the ICU.