BurnOutCare. Design of an Online Community for Burnout Prevention. Preliminary Phase for the Development of a Web/Mobile Application.

BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE Burnout syndrome, characterised by emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation, and reduced personal accomplishment (Maslach et al., 1996), represents one of the most pressing occupational health challenges in healthcare. Its consequences affect mental health (mood disorders, insomnia, substance use, increased psychotropic medication consumption), physical health (cardiovascular problems, chronic fatigue, migraine, gastrointestinal disorders including Irritable Bowel Syndrome), and work performance (reduced job satisfaction, quality of care, absenteeism, and staff turnover).

Primary care professionals are a particularly high-risk group. A meta-analysis found an overall burnout prevalence of approximately 50% among physicians globally. Primary care workers face specific risk factors: sustained physical and emotional workload, high administrative burden, limited autonomy, chronic time pressure, and reduced institutional recognition. The COVID-19 pandemic further exacerbated pre-existing burnout levels across all healthcare professions.

Evidence-based strategies include individual-focused interventions (CBT, mindfulness-based stress reduction, resilience training) and organisational interventions (workload reduction, improved staffing ratios, supportive team cultures). Digital tools - particularly mobile applications and online communities - have shown promise as accessible, scalable complements to these strategies. WhatsApp-based interventions offer structural advantages: near-universal adoption, no additional installation required, real-time interactivity, low cost, and multimedia content delivery capability. However, most digital tools address stress generically rather than targeting burnout specifically. A preliminary community-based pilot approach - validating content, format, and delivery before full application development - is both methodologically sound and resource-efficient.

STUDY DESIGN AND ETHICS BurnOutCare is a pre-experimental pilot study with a single-cohort pretest-posttest design, without a control group or randomisation. The study adheres to the CONSORT 2010 extension for pilot and feasibility trials (Eldridge et al., 2016), with randomisation-specific items marked as non-applicable. Primary objectives: (1) assess feasibility and effectiveness of the WhatsApp-based intervention; (2) obtain preliminary data to guide future definitive trial design and mobile health application development.

The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of OSI Barrualde-Galdakao (Protocol 08/25, Osakidetza-Basque Health Service). All participants provide written informed consent prior to enrolment in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and applicable Spanish data protection legislation.