The rudeness and carelessness of doctors is a problem that hospital visitors are constantly confronted with. Health workers often suffer from burnout, resulting in their professional deformation. Consider what is the professional burnout of medical workers, what are the ways to prevent it.
General information
Representatives of professions related to communication are most prone to professional emotional burnout. As a result of the influence of external and internal factors, a person becomes indifferent to others, no longer feels the value of life, nothing pleases him. A physician not only does his job worse, he has problems with mental and physical health.
According to statistical studies, 64% of doctors in Russia suffer from neurotic disorders or are in a borderline state. In 68% of medical workers, burnout syndrome was detected. Unhappy with their salaries 90% of doctors. 38% of doctors found depression. Most often, neurotic disorders affect ambulance doctors, surgeons, oncologists, therapists.
The term "burnout" was first coined by G. Freidenberger in 1974 to describe the emotional state of some workers in psychiatric institutions. It was later revealed that this term is suitable for many professions related to communicating with people. Burnout occurs as a result of prolonged exposure to professional psychotraumatic factors on a person. The medical professional is constantly under pressure. Large volumes of work, improper organization of labor, pressure from patients and their relatives, pressure from the authorities, lead to the syndrome of professional burnout of medical workers.
Components of burnout and risk zones
Burnout syndrome manifests itself in three components:
- Absolute emotional exhaustion and exhaustion. A person is no longer able to give himself to work, he feels dissatisfaction with his own activities.
- Lack of sympathy for patients, cynicism.
- Dislike for their work and for themselves.
There are three types of behavioral characteristics of nurses that are most susceptible to professional burnout:
- Pedantic nurses who strive for the ideal. They are always accurate and attentive to patients. Qualitatively carry out their work. The result is important to them.
- A demonstrative type of behavior in which the recognition of other people, the primacy in everything, is important to a person. Such nurses spend a lot of energy in the process of their activities, as they are trying to achieve greater heights than the rest.
- The emotional type of behavior is characterized by increased empathy in relation to other people's experiences. Such people perceive the tragedy of others as their own, which is why there is a rapid waste of personal emotional resources.
Among medical workers, professional burnout is most susceptible to:
- young inexperienced professionals;
- doctors with insufficient qualifications;
- Doctors experiencing problems in their personal lives.
Causes
Symptoms and treatment of nervous system depletion are directly dependent on the causes that caused it. You can divide them into two groups:
- Objective reasons associated with the characteristics of the activity performed (for example, the daily routine, the amount of work, the number of days off).
- Subjective reasons related to the attitude of the employee to his own activities (for example, the relationship of the doctor and his patient, attitude to failures, relationships with colleagues).
In general, the following reasons for the professional burnout of medical workers can be distinguished:
- Psychological unpreparedness for emergency assistance.
- Huge physical and psychological stress.
- Incurable diseases and death of patients.
- Pressure of patients and their relatives.
- Lack of necessary knowledge.
- Personal attitude to death.
- Low salary.
- Unsatisfactory working conditions.
- Ambiguous job requirements.
- The risk of reprimands and fines.
- Lack of vacation and full weekend.
- Physical overload.
- Social insecurity.
Factors affecting the formation of burnout syndrome
Burnout syndrome most often affects people in "helping professions." Their activity is associated with close communication with people, as well as providing them with comprehensive assistance. The following factors can be identified that can cause the appearance of a burnout syndrome among medical professionals:
- Insufficient motivation of employees, lack of encouragement, a ban on innovation and creative freedom.
- Strict standardization of the work schedule, the inability to complete work on time.
- Low qualification category of medical worker.
- Monotony of work.
- A lot of effort put into work that does not receive proper compensation.
- Work with patients who do not follow all the recommendations and resist treatment. From here comes the inefficiency of the efforts of the physician.
- Tensions in the work team, quarrels with colleagues.
- Lack of opportunities for further professional growth.
- Awareness of the erroneous choice of a profession, mismatch of personal characteristics with the specifics of the chosen profession.
Medical professionals and patient death
Most of all, doctors who work with hopelessly sick and dying people are subject to professional burnout. Death for them can come in three forms:
- The real death of patients, the futility of treatment, the futile efforts to save a life.
- Potential death of the patient due to incorrect diagnosis or erroneous actions of the doctor.
- Death is phantom when the doctor is constantly confronted with the fear of death in the patient and his relatives.
With all this, the doctor has to emotionally distance himself from the death of the patient. Not every physician is able to cope with this, because he experiences someone else's misfortune as his own, which accelerates the process of professional burnout. Due to the effects of traumatic circumstances, a person feels physical and emotional fatigue, he breaks down on his other patients, colleagues and relatives. A good doctor should possess qualities that will allow him not to take the death of patients to heart.
Formation process
The process of forming a burnout syndrome goes through three stages:
- The employee begins to feel bored, his emotions are muffled. So far it seems that everything is in order, but the work no longer brings its former pleasure. Becomes less positive emotions, there is a detached attitude to the family. It comes to the fact that, returning home, a person does not want to communicate with anyone. He wants to be left alone.
- There are misunderstandings with patients, neglect of colleagues. A person feels a flash of irritation, even when alone. This is due to an overabundance of communication.
- A person becomes indifferent to others and to himself. The employee no longer realizes the value of life, he becomes cynical. Outwardly, it may seem that everything is in order with such a person, but in fact, everything is indifferent to him.
When the syndrome is just beginning to develop, a person tries to deal with traumatic factors through a positive attitude toward work, but he only spends more energy. Soon, a person feels tired and frustrated, he loses interest in work. In such cases, they say that the person "burned out at work."
According to the degree of reversibility, the following stages of the development of professional burnout syndrome can be distinguished:
- Neurotic reaction. The features of neurasthenia are visible. Fatigue and irritability increase. The performance drops. Conflict increases, a person breaks down on others. Mental and physical activity is reduced. Emotional exhaustion is observed.
- Neurotic development. A man feels an aversion to work, performs it through his sleeves, erects a wall around himself, does not want to communicate with anyone.
- The final change in personality. Occupational deformation of the individual. A person becomes indifferent, cynical or even aggressive. He is no longer able to enjoy life. Depression appears, which can last for years.
There is a direct correlation between the lack of professional motivation of a medical worker and the quality of his duties. From how much doctors get for their work, their material independence and security depend. Low salary depreciates the efforts of a person in the process of his professional activity. Demanding bosses and constant conflicts lead a person to a sense of the futility of all the efforts put into work. The physician begins to take off from work, perform it only within the framework of normative acts, emotionally withdraw from patients.
Signs and Symptoms
The following phenomena can be attributed to signs of professional deformation:
- The doctor is more focused on the disease, rather than on the recovery of the patient.
- Lack of an individual approach to patients, patients become “on the conveyor”.
- Lack of moral support for the patient.
- Attitude to the patient as a biological mechanism in which the breakdown occurred.
- Shifting responsibility for the results of treatment from oneself to tablets and equipment.
- Hostility.
- Reluctance to work.
- Refusal to come to the rescue in emergency situations.
- Rudeness and rudeness of medical personnel.
- Corrupt practices.
- Irresponsibility and cynicism.
- Bureaucracy.
- Issue of fake medical documents.
- Medical errors and crimes.
- Refusal to inform the patient about the diagnosis and treatment plan.
- Violation of medical confidentiality.
- Mockery of the patients.
- Experiments on people.
- Lack of mercy.
We highlight the symptoms of professional burnout of medical workers:
- Insomnia.
- Constant fatigue.
- Depression.
- Alcoholism.
- Irritability.
- Reluctance to work.
- Aggression towards patients, colleagues and superiors.
Professional deformation
Professional deformation is an irreversible personality change that occurs as a result of a person fulfilling his professional obligations. As a result, personal values, character, manner of communication with patients and loved ones change. Deformation appears due to professional burnout. The protective mechanisms of the body weaken, the destruction of personality begins. Personality changes as a result of exposure to professional factors.
A person transfers his habits and habits associated with the profession into his personal life. He is no longer able to separate work and everyday life. However, professional deformation does not always have only a negative imprint. In the process of work, a person gains useful experience and skills, which in their free time can be very useful.
It is professional adaptation that is at the heart of professional deformation and emotional burnout. A person adapts to the influence of external and internal factors. Problems begin when internal resources are not enough to cope with stress. When adaptive function fails, psychological and physiological changes occur in the body. It seems that the person "burned out at work."
Occupational deformity is often observed in healthcare providers. They have a certain power, because the health and life of patients depends on them. At the beginning of their professional activities, doctors react violently and emotionally to people's suffering. Due to the influence of the self-defense mechanism, gradually they are removed from the suffering of others. A professionally deformed doctor may seem indifferent to the patient and disinterested in his recovery, even if the physician himself is not aware of this. Not all future doctors are aware of future difficulties before they become doctors.
There is another extreme of professional deformation when a worker tries to compensate for his dissatisfaction with his own work with excessive workaholism. A person does not feel satisfaction from his work, therefore he is making more and more efforts to achieve results that suit him. He is sure that failures happen only because he is not a very good doctor. The personal life of a physician often suffers from this, because he cannot forget about work for a minute.
Prevention
Prevention of professional burnout should begin at the time of training at a medical university. How do you become doctors? Students need to be prepared for the specifics of their future work. They should be aware of all the possible risks. When graduating from an educational institution, the employee should be aware of the methods for preventing professional burnout. It is necessary to conduct a preventive conversation with new employees, where it is worth describing the possible difficulties that they may encounter and how to overcome them.
It is important to train staff in the rules of communicating with patients, the correct actions in an emergency, and techniques aimed at combating occupational stress. Mutual assistance groups can be created where medical workers can communicate and share their experience in overcoming burnout syndrome. In the event of emotional burnout and depression, any employee should receive qualified help from a psychologist.
Do not forget about the material side of life. From how much doctors get, their emotional state directly depends. Remuneration must correspond to the complexity of the work performed.
Prevention of burnout is as follows:
- proper nutrition and healthy lifestyle;
- the presence of other interests that are far from professional activities;
- the presence of close relatives with whom you are in a good relationship;
- the ability to adequately assess their own work, lack of dependence on other people's opinions;
- development of new approaches and techniques, a creative approach to work;
- adequate acceptance of failures;
- the realization that a doctor is a necessary profession;
- the pursuit of goals;
- the adoption of new experience, the ability to learn from mistakes;
- lack of focus only on things related to the profession;
- professional development, communication with other specialists, attendance at seminars;
- the presence of a hobby;
- collaboration with colleagues.
Methods of struggle
We can distinguish the following ways to combat the professional burnout of medical workers by the administration:
- Increase in wages to employees.
- Revision of optimum load.
- Providing holidays and weekends.
- Selection of competent and understanding leadership.
- Helping young employees to adapt to the characteristics of the profession.
- Conducting professional trainings and seminars.
- Professional motivation of employees.
Not all medical workers are able to recognize the symptoms of nervous system depletion in time, and its treatment may be delayed until the moment when irreversible changes occur in the human psyche. In this case, the employee must provide the assistance of a qualified specialist.
To cope with emotional burnout, you need to try to look into your future and identify the goals that you are striving for. If you feel that you have reached a peak in your field, engage in activities close to your work. So you can use the accumulated experience and at the same time learn new things. In the process of professional activity, you should not use only well-studied and familiar techniques. It is necessary to look for new ways and methods of healing. Do not try always and in everything to be the best. It is necessary to relate more easily to conflicts with colleagues and superiors.
Thus, professional and emotional burnout is a problem that almost all medical professionals face. Constant stresses, incurable diseases and death of patients, high workload trigger protective mechanisms in the body, under the influence of which a person becomes indifferent and uninitiated. Gradually, a professional deformation occurs, in which the character and habits of a person in everyday life change. We have listed ways to prevent the professional burnout of medical workers, which are aimed at helping to combat work stresses and difficulties.