Abstract
Depression and burnout syndrome among healthcare workers can have detrimental effects on psychological well-being and patient safety. The prevalence of such psychological difficulties is increasing among healthcare workers, often caused by various factors such as high workload, stress, and occupational trauma. When the effects of conditions such as burnout and depression on patient safety are examined, it is revealed that they contribute to an increased propensity of healthcare workers to make mistakes and to a decrease in the quality of patient care. On the other hand, depression and burnout among healthcare workers also affect their own health, leading to a high rate of attrition from the profession and even suicide. All of this causes serious harm to health workers, patients, and institutions. Therefore, intervention strategies to improve the psychological well-being of healthcare workers and enhance patient safety are of great importance. These strategies focus on various areas such as organizational culture, flexible working hours, support groups, counseling services, and professional development opportunities. The objective of this chapter is to examine the effects of depression and, especially burnout syndrome on both employee health and patient safety, as well as to evaluate prevention strategies.