The Burnout Syndrome In Health Care Professionals
Working in healthcare can be a complicated task. Healthcare professionals are always busy preserving or restoring people’s health and this can be very stressful. Unfortunately, many of these workers today suffer from burnout syndrome.
In 1943, Abraham Maslow placed health at the top of his hierarchy of needs, alongside physiological needs such as sleeping, eating and breathing. In addition, he ranked physical security second, as part of the security needs group.
So health care is very important. So not being healthy, or thinking you are not healthy, can be an alarm signal, a lack of security, and you can feel threatened.
Causes of Burnout Syndrome
Hospitals can be places full of emotional scenes. The patients and their families may experience intense emotional reactions that can also affect caregivers. Studies have shown that the main stressors that affect caregivers are the following, namely:
- work schedules
- treating sick people who can sometimes go through a crisis
- the feeling after the death of a patient
- lawsuits against them
Other medical professionals also point out the following:
- being the bearer of bad news to people in an already compromised situation
- the patient’s high expectations of his doctor and the healthcare system
- work against the clock in stressful situations
- overload at work
- a lack of medical resources to treat their patients
It’s worth noting that their personal lives can also cause stress for caregivers. The most common and best known are work-life balance and relationships. There are strategies to lower their stress levels, as stress can keep them from doing their job.
Reducing caregiver burnout
Burnout syndrome in caregivers can also lead to:
- low job satisfaction
- deteriorated work environment
- low quality of work
- poor attendance at work
- leaving the profession
- passive-aggressiveness towards patients
Making changes to the usual strategies, work hierarchies and methodologies could improve this. However, a healthcare worker can develop a number of skills to deal with work stress.
Communication skills
A recent study on burnout among caregivers tried to discover whether communication skills had any influence on this.
The study concluded that experts with better communication skills are less likely to experience emotional fatigue. In addition, they have a stronger sense of personal satisfaction from their work.
Communication skills not only benefit the professional, they can also have a positive influence on the patient. Communication between healthcare provider and patient is an essential part of the healing process. It gives them both confidence in each other and also improves the clinical experience.
Therapeutic Relationship
Studies show that the better the therapeutic relationship, the better the clinical outcomes. This is done by the following:
- better diagnostic ability by knowing the patient’s psychosocial variables
- increased placebo effect
- a greater commitment to follow treatment
- a realistic choice of treatment by involving patients in the decision-making process
Emotional intelligence
There is a negative relationship between emotional intelligence and work stress. Most studies focus their analyzes on nursing. These results show that the stronger the emotional intelligence, the less stress you have. The results can also be used in other medical settings.
One way to improve emotional intelligence is through emotional regulation. How do you do this then? Psychology considers emotional regulation to be a basic process of emotional intelligence. Through emotional regulation, you will be able to control and manage your emotions in stressful situations.
In short, it is clear that healthcare professionals are under a lot of stress, which can cause them to suffer from burnout syndrome. Often these people are exposed to external factors. On the other hand, they can work on what they can control.
