Objective To understand the current state of research on occupational burnout among medical staff in China and to summarize the achievements and shortcomings of current studies, providing insights for future management and intervention of medical staff burnout.

Methods A literature review was conducted using the CNKI and Wanfang databases for articles published between 2002 and 2022, based on relevant keywords. An Excel database was established to extract information from the literature, including journal information, author information, burnout assessment scales, and influencing factors. The influencing factors of medical staff burnout were organized and summarized, and a saturation curve was drawn. Articles utilizing the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) were extracted to analyze scores across three dimensions of burnout: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment.

Results A total of 205 articles were retrieved, with 76 included in the final analysis, all from core journals listed by Peking University, the Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index (CSSCI), or the Chinese Science Citation Database (CSCD). The number of publications has generally increased since 2005. Totally 18 articles used the service industry version of the burnout scale (Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Service Survey, MBI-HSS), with a total sample size of 8 327. The scores for emotional exhaustion were (23.33 ±10.41) points, for depersonalization (7.98 ± 6.50) points, and for reduced personal accomplishment (27.29 ± 11.01) points. Medical staff in the eastern region showed the highest levels of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization but the lowest levels of reduced personal accomplishment. While those in the western region had the lowest levels of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization but the highest levels of reduced personal accomplishment (P < 0.05). Since 2010, the degree of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization among medical staff has increased, but there has been a decrease in reduced personal accomplishment (P < 0.01). The influencing factors for burnout were widely distributed across individual, organizational, and social categories.

Conclusions Medical staff in China experienced moderate levels of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization and high levels of reduced personal accomplishment. There are more and more studies on influencing factors of burnout among medical staff, but they are mainly cross-sectional studies. Future research could focus on more specific studies of different categories of medical personnel.