The prevalence of burnout syndrome and its association with adherence to safety and practice standards among anesthetists working in Ethiopia

Compassion Fatigue in Emergency Medicine: Current Perspectives

Compassion fatigue (CF), or loss of ability to empathize or feel compassion for others for whom one cares, is a growing concern for emergency physicians (EP). EPs, by the nature of their jobs, work under unpredictable conditions at odd hours with high levels of exposure to traumatic events. They are placed under substantial psychological, physical, and cognitive pressure, with little opportunity to recover or reflect. CF occurs when this workplace stress leads to feelings of being overwhelmed, helpless, unsupported, and unable to cope. Additionally, primary traumatic stress from threats of workplace violence and secondary traumatic stress (STS) from witnessing the suffering of others increase the likelihood of developing CF. Unchecked, this progression to CF causes reduction in quality of care to patients, reduction in patient satisfaction, increased levels of EP depression and anxiety, increased levels of EP substance use, and increased attrition from the specialty. To truly improve CF, individuals and organizations should be aware of the contributors to CF: namely, emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, primary and STS, and personal achievement. EPs should maximize their resilience to CF by using cognitive behavioral techniques and mindfulness, taking care of their physical health, seeking meaning and development within their work, developing hobbies outside of work, and creating boundaries between work and home. Organizations should actively address the known drivers of physician burnout: workload and job demands, efficiency and resources, meaning in work, culture and values, control and flexibility, work community, and work-life integration. Organizations should also provide adequate safety within facilities to reduce the threat of primary trauma and should supply adequate support and destigmatization for post-traumatic symptoms for EPs suffering from STS.

The effect of burnout syndrome on the job satisfaction of employees in the municipalities of South Lima: a cross-sectional study

Introduction and importance

Nowadays, improving the performance of employees is essential to increase productivity and achieve continuous improvement; therefore, it is necessary to achieve job satisfaction among all members of the organisation to avoid negative attitudes, professional burnout, health problems and a lack of commitment. Therefore, our objective was to determine the level of burnout and its relationship with the level of job satisfaction among employees in the municipalities of southern Lima.

Methods

The research is basic research, with a quantitative approach and a cross-sectional, nonexperimental, correlational design. The survey technique was used and the data collection instrument was a questionnaire addressed to 271 workers of the municipalities of South Lima on the variable burnout syndrome with the dimensions depersonalisation and emotional exhaustion, as well as on the variable job satisfaction with the dimensions work benefits, administrative policies and social relations, with a Cronbach's alpha reliability of 0.801.

Results

The results show that 50.2% of the employees state that they have an overload of mental effort that causes a high level of emotional exhaustion, 50.2% state that the work develops in them negative and insensitive attitudes that increase their level of depersonalisation and 77.9% state that the company is unable to satisfy the personal demands of the employees through the work benefits it offers.

Conclusions

These findings reflect that burnout is a common illness in organisations due to workload, poor organisational climate and neglect of employees' emotional health. Therefore, more research is needed on the role of organisations in reducing levels of occupational burnout in order to promote improvements in mental health.

Compassion Fatigue and Satisfaction among Turkish Emergency Medicine Residents Using the Professional Quality of Life Scale

Introduction

Emergency medicine (EM) residents are at high risk for burnout syndrome. The professional quality of life scale (ProQOL) is a validated survey that measures compassion satisfaction (CS) and compassion fatigue, which is comprised of burnout and secondary traumatic stress (STS) scales. This study sought to evaluate CS and fatigue among Turkish EM residents using the ProQOL survey.

Methods

This was a cross-sectional study of Turkish EM residents who are part of the EM Residency Association of Turkey. The ProQOL survey version 5 was E-mailed in Turkish to all 150 EM residents. Participants were currently employed as EM residents. Demographics and satisfaction with quality of life were also collected.

Results

Eighty residents completed the survey. Almost half of the respondents were either very dissatisfied or dissatisfied with their overall quality of life. Turkish EM residents not only had moderate levels of CS (scoring 33.9 ± 7.9), but also suffered moderate burnout (27.0 ± 5.9) and STS (24.7 ± 5.3).

Conclusions

Turkish EM residents have moderate levels of CS and moderate levels of burnout and secondary traumatic stress.