Correlates of Mortal Distress Among Healthcare Staff in Hospitals: A Systematic Review and Meta‐Analysis

ABSTRACT

Background

Mortal distress encompasses emotional, cognitive, physical and behavioural responses to death and dying among healthcare staff who frequently encounter mortality in hospital settings. Healthcare workers often experience heightened levels of mortal distress due to their regular exposure to patient deaths, which can negatively impact both their personal and professional lives, leading to burnout and high turnover rates.

Aim

To identify and quantitatively synthesise correlates of mortal distress among hospital healthcare staff and examine moderating factors affecting these relationships.

Design

Systematic review and meta-analysis following PRISMA 2020 guidelines

Methods

Two independent reviewers screened and extracted data from studies published between January 1990 and December 2024 across eight databases (five English: CINAHL, MEDLINE, ProQuest, PubMed, Scopus; three Chinese: Airiti, CNKI, Wanfang). Quality assessment was conducted using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool. Meta-analysis was performed using Comprehensive Meta-Analysis 3.0.

Results

Analysis of 94 studies identified three factor domains: personal, job-related and situational. Four job-related factors demonstrated the strongest correlations with mortal distress: competence in coping with death in healthcare contexts, needs for death-related or hospice care training, quality of end-of-life communication, and working in departments with high patient mortality rates. Four significant moderators influenced correlation strength: publication language, geographic region, study quality, and measurement tools used for assessing mortal distress.

Conclusions

This synthesis provides evidence regarding the magnitude and strength of factors associated with mortal distress among healthcare staff. The identification of main and moderator effects emphasises the critical need for developing culturally sensitive, tailored interventions to help healthcare workers navigate mortality-related challenges.

Implications

The results can guide healthcare organisations in developing targeted interventions and training programs, inform medical and nursing education curricula by encouraging the inclusion of life and death education, and ultimately enhance staff well-being while improving the quality of patient and family care, especially in palliative care contexts.

No Patient or Public Contribution

This study did not include patient or public involvement in its design, conduct, or reporting.

Trial Registration

PROSPERO number: CRD42021275460