As telehealth becomes an increasingly prevalent mode of healthcare, it is becoming crucial to understand the occupational challenges that healthcare professionals (HCPs) face in telehealth environments. A particularly salient concern is burnout, an occupational hazard characterized by the loss of emotional, mental, and physical energy due to continued exposure to chronic stress at work. HCPs, particularly physicians and nurses, are among the most burned-out occupational groups worldwide. Though numerous studies have identified personal and work-related antecedents of burnout in HCPs, most of these studies focused on traditional, in-person medical contexts. It remains unclear whether these antecedents also manifest in the telehealth context, and what other contributing factors, unique to the latter, should be considered. To address this scarcity of knowledge, the current research seeks to extrapolate known antecedents of burnout from the in-person context to the telehealth context. To this end, we first review and summarize research on antecedents of burnout among HCPs providing in-person care. We then review and summarize research on HCPs' experiences working in a telehealth context, to identify characteristics of telehealth that might affect burnout. Next, we synthesize the reviews to come up with common themes and potential variations, and put forward an organizing framework that connects antecedents of burnout with key technological, professional and psychological aspects of telehealth. We conclude with directions for future investigation.
