Burnout

For years we have been interacting with others by using humor. We do not mean by telling stories or ethnic jokes; what we do mean is to play off of the moment and the circumstance. We have used this intuitive style in grocery stores at checkout counters, in banks with tellers, in airports with ticket agents, in graduate classes, in management seminars, in management groups, and in board rooms. Almost, without exception, people like to laugh.

In these situations from the ticket counter to the board room, we have left feeling either satisfied as a customer, or pleased with the joint decision of a board. Our counterparts with whom we have interacted also have seemed to be pleased and, in most cases, smiles were on their faces.
What is this thing called humor and how can it help us move organizations into the 21st Century?

We have seen intuitive humor operate effectively in most cases, here in the United States, and in international situations. Recently, while in a meeting with one of the sheiks from the United Arab Emirates, there was a pause in our discussions and the Arabic people all began to laugh. We thought we had done something wrong, but my Arabic friends said oh no, it is just a bit of local humor. Likewise, we have used intuitive humor in Luxembourg, Paris, and Frankfurt recently very successfully. People of all cultures like to laugh.

In “Physician Burnout Calls for Legal Intervention” (November-December 2019), Sharona Hoffman calls for a “requirement” in the form of a “mandate that health care employers measure physician wellness using the [Maslach Burnout Inventory] (or another reliable tool) and report outcomes to [the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services]” (p. 9). Such a requirement would be unlawful under the Americans with Disabilities Act’s rules on prohibited medical examinations of employees.

Sharona Hoffman’s response to my letter states “employers may require periodic job-related medical examinations of all employees ‘in positions affecting public safety.’ As I argued in my commentary, doctors, to whom patients entrust their health every day, have safety-critical jobs.”

This comparison is inapt. As Ilene N. Moore, Screening Older Physicians for Cognitive Impairment: Justifiable or Discriminatory, 28 HEALTH MATRIX 95, 140 (2018) recently explained: “any interpretation suggesting that that physicians are in a position affecting public safety is not supported by the statutory language of the ADA, the EEOC Enforcement Guidance, or EEOC correspondence. Only one federal law defines some physicians as public safety officers: physicians who serve as part of a public rescue squad or ambulance as defined by the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968.” (internal citations omitted).

The COVID-19 pandemic forces frontline health-care workers to make difficult medical decisions that may result in moral injury. Understanding the extent to which physicians, nurses, and other health-care workers experience moral injury while working in a pandemic is of critical importance to establish preventative measures and trauma-informed treatment. A national sample of health-care workers (n 
109) participated in the study. The results of a multiple regression analysis indicated secondary traumatic stress was significantly associated with moral injury. Contrary to existing literature, the role of burnout
and compassion fatigue in this study was nonsignificant. Mental health professionals may reduce treatment barriers by offering flexible sessions, nontraditional hours, and short-term interventions through tele-mental health platforms to support health-care workers experiencing trauma symptoms.

Aim.  To examine the relationship between nurse staffing and nurse-rated quality of nursing care and job outcomes.Background.  Nurse staffing has been reported to influence patient and nurse outcomes.Design.  A cross-sectional study with a survey conducted August–October 2007.Methods.  The survey included 1365 nurses from 65 intensive care units in 22 hospitals in Korea. Staffing was measured using two indicators: the number of patients per nurse measured at the unit level and perception of staffing adequacy at the nurse level. Quality of care and job dissatisfaction were measured with a four-point scale and burnout measured by the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Multilevel logistic regression models were used to determine the relationships between staffing and quality of care and job outcomes.Results.  The average patient-to-nurse ratio was 2·8 patients per nurse. A fifth of nurses perceived that there were enough nurses to provide quality care, one third were dissatisfied, half were highly burnt out and a quarter planned to leave in the next year. Nurses were more likely to rate quality of care as high when they cared for two or fewer patients (odds ratio, 3·26; 95% confidence interval, 1·14–9·31) or 2·0–2·5 patients (odds ratio, 2·44; 95% confidence interval, 1·32–4·52), compared with having more than three patients. Perceived adequate staffing was related to a threefold increase (odds ratio, 2·97; 95% confidence interval, 2·22–3·97) in the odds of nurses’ rating high quality and decreases in the odds of dissatisfaction (odds ratio, 0·30; 95% confidence interval, 0·23–0·40), burnout (odds ratio, 0·50; 95% confidence interval, 0·34–0·73) and plan to leave (odds ratio, 0·40; 95% confidence interval, 0·28–0·56).Conclusions.  Nurse staffing was associated with quality of care and job outcomes in the context of Korean intensive care units.Relevance to clinical practice.  Adequate staffing must be assured to achieve better quality of care and job outcomes.

This milestone text provides a comprehensive and state-of-the art overview of perfectionism theory, research, and treatment from the past 25 years, with contributions from the leading researchers in the field. The book examines new theories and perspectives including the social disconnection model of perfectionism and the 2 × 2 model of perfectionism. It also reviews empirical findings, with a special focus on stress, vulnerability, and resilience, and examines perfectionism in specific populations. Finally, it considers how perfectionism relates to physical health and psychophysiological processes and introduces new approaches to effective prevention and treatment. By increasing our understanding of perfectionism as a complex personality disposition and providing a framework for future explorations, this landmark publication aims to promote further research in this field. It will be invaluable reading for academics, students, and professionals in personality psychology, clinical and counselling psychology, applied psychology and related disciplines.

Objective: To discuss the relationships between occupational stress, career calling and occupational burnout among primary school teachers, and test whether career calling moderates the relationship between occupational stress and occupational burnout. Methods: 399 teachers from public primary schools were recruited as participant. Their occupational stress and burnout, and career calling were assessed via online questionnaire in the period between March and August 2018. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to test the moderating role of career calling. Results: The score of occupational stress was (3.59±0.85) , the score of career calling was (3.15±0.69) and the score of occupational was (3.26±0.88) . Occupational stress was significantly and positively related to occupational burnout (r=0.42, P<0.01) , while career calling was significantly and negatively related to occupational stress (r=-0.30, P<0.01) and occupational burnout (r=-0.32, P<0.01) . Career calling mode...

This ethnographic study of interpretations of stress among hospital social workers reveals concrete ways in which institutional systems take form in the mundane actions and interpretations of individuals embedded in these systems. It also reveals how organizational cultures reflect and reinforce institutional conditions that have been negotiated in the interactions of individuals. Here, the institutional systems of medicine and social work come together in the everyday work of the social workers and result in two patterns of cultural dominance. Within these distinct types of culture emerge two forms of stress experience, including a dominant form, consistent with medical ideology, and a marginalized form, consistent with social work ideology. Some surprising patterns of interpretation emerge, including interpretations of ambiguity and burnout as normal, social, and desirable when the social work ideology is dominant. This institutional analysis of stress has theoretical, practical, and epistemological implications.

Perfectionism in sports has been shown to be associated with burnout in athletes. Whether perfectionism predicts longitudinal changes in athlete burnout, however, is still unclear. Using a two-wave cross-lagged panel design, the present study examined perfectionistic strivings, perfectionistic concerns, and athlete burnout in 101 junior athletes (mean age 17.7 years) over 3 months of active training. When structural equation modeling was employed to test a series of competing models, the best-fitting model showed opposite patterns for perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns. Whereas perfectionistic concerns predicted increases in athlete burnout over the 3 months, perfectionistic strivings predicted decreases. The present findings suggest that perfectionistic concerns are a risk factor for junior athletes contributing to the development of athlete burnout whereas perfectionistic strivings appear to be a protective factor.

Prison officers in Brazil play a fundamental role in the functioning of prison institutions, as they deal directly with the country's prison population. However, there is a scarcity of studies addressing the mental health aspects of these professionals in their work environments. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of physical activity on the mental aspects of prison officers in Brazil. This is an integrative review in which searches were performed for articles between the years 2000 to 2020 indexed in the SciELO and PUBMED databases and academic google, with the descriptors in English from the Medical Subject Headings (MESH) and Portuguese found in the Science Descriptors of Health (DECS). Of the 75 articles found, only 4 (n = 561) met the eligibility criteria. It was observed from the studies found that the main causes of psychological distress of these professionals are related to insomnia, fatigue, constant psychological pressure, violence, frequent alcohol consumption, low mood and constant worry. However, most prison officers in Brazil also do not practice physical activities, which may be directly related to the prevalence of psychological distress in this public. In the literature, studies have shown that the improvement in mental health aspects is related to the level of physical activity, as it provides greater encouragement, improves self-esteem, reduces tension in work relationships, muscle fatigue and helps to control anxiety, as well as of depression. Physical activity is an efficient strategy to reduce psychological damage caused by the work environment of prison officers in Brazil.

El presente artículo es producto de una revisión sistemática que tuvo como objetivo determinar y contrastar los elementos metodológicos y hallazgos principales de las investigaciones relativas al estudio conjunto de la salud, estrés y burnout en distintos ámbitos laborales. Las palabras clave que se utilizaron para la búsqueda y compilación fueron “salud”, “burnout” y “estrés”. Producto de tal indagación, se obtuvieron 189 artículos, mismos que se vieron reducidos a doce al pasar por dos fases de selección. Sus elementos metodológicos más característicos fueron el diseño trans-versal, el empleo del Maslach Burnout Inventory, el uso de estadística paramétrica y su realiza-ción en los ámbitos de la salud y el educativo. La principal conclusión referida en los estudios fue que la salud se relaciona con el burnout y el estrés, aunque los factores mediadores de dicha asociación varían en cada uno de aquellos.

In healthcare settings, nurses’ workload, burnout, and job satisfaction are associated to the patient–nurse ratio. Whether this ratio also affects their intention to leave the nursing profession, along with the underlying stress pathway, remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the effects of the patient–nurse ratio on nurses’ intention to leave and considering the mediating roles of burnout and job dissatisfaction. The study analyzed the data of two pooled cross-sectional surveys collected in 2013 and 2014. Measures were obtained by a structure questionnaire, which queried the average daily patient–nurse ratio (ADPNR), nurses’ personal burnout, client-related burnout, job dissatisfaction, intention to leave, and other demographics. ADPNRs were standardized according to hospital levels. Multiple regression models examined mediation hypotheses, and a percentile bootstrap confidence interval was applied to determine the significance of indirect effects. A total of 1409 full-ti...

Burnout syndrome is a disorder that seriously affects people who suffer it, the institutions in which they work and the quality of healthcare. It is of great interest to advance in burnout research for its possible prevention. The aim of this work was to study the levels of burnout syndrome in nurses of emergency department with overtime workdays and to know the relationship between burnout and personality characteristics. Multicenter cross-sectional study with a sample of 1225 emergency nurses from the Andalusian Health Service. Demographic, social and occupational variables were recorded. Burnout was assessed with Maslach Burnout Inventory and personality factors with NEO-Five Factor Inventory. Descriptive analysis of the variables, independent means hypothesis contrast and bayesian analysis were done. 44.1% of nurses who perform overtime workdays have high burnout versus a 38% for those without such overload. These differences have been also found in burnout dimensions, especiall...

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, hoteliers from the Penang hotel industry have encountered greater levels of burnout due to their high levels of job demands and low extents of job resources. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the predictors of burnout among Penang hoteliers. Moreover, the paper intends to examine the potential roles of challenge demands and hindrance demands as the mediating variables. A total of 313 hoteliers from the Penang hotel industry participated in the study. The results of the present study showed that psychosocial safety climate (PSC) and burnout possess a significant negative relationship whereas challenge demands and hindrance demands possess a significant positive relationship with burnout. Furthermore, PSC was found to be significantly and negatively related to challenge demands and hindrance demands. Moreover, challenge demands and hindrance demands were identified as the significant mediators between the predictor variables and burnout. The findings of the present study are helpful to both academics and practitioners who wish to manage the burnout levels among hoteliers from the Penang hotel industry.

Courage, beyond being seen as one of the basic virtues, has been accepted by some philosophers as the protector or even a prerequisite of all other virtues. While workplace social courage is widely discussed in the international management literature, less is known about the conditions under which individuals are more or less likely to exhibit courageous behaviors and how this affects what. To fill the gap between theory and practice in the field of courage, there is a great need for empirical, concrete, and practical courage studies. This study aims to reveal the effect of workplace social courage, one of the prominent organizational outcome variables, on job satisfaction and burnout, and to draw attention to the issue of courage in the national literature. The research population is the company employees of Fortune500-2018 of Turkey; and the sample is the employees of 50 out of 340 firms which are in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, and Bursa. The total number of employees who responded to the questionnaires and were found to be suitable for analysis is 387. The data obtained from the questionnaires were analyzed with SPSS 26.0 program. The results showed that workplace social courage has a moderate, positive, and significant effect on the first dimension of job satisfaction, namely satisfaction with the job itself (β=.303; p<0.001); a moderate, positive, and significant effect on the second dimension of job satisfaction, namely satisfaction from colleagues (β=.277; p<0.001); a moderate, negative and significant effect on burnout (β=-0,241; p<0,001). In this context, as the workplace social courage of employees increases, their level of burnout decreases, and their job satisfaction increases. While these results show that the social courage of employees is necessary for increasing job satisfaction and preventing burnout of employees, it also suggests that the managers should initiate the reflection of courage in practice as well. In this context, the courage of the employees should be led and encouraged by the leaders. As a result, this study intends to shed light on organizational behavior theorists and practitioners.

This study described the impact of adopting person-centred care approach for people with Alzheimer&#39;s disease on professional caregivers&#39; burden. The participants were subjected to a 4-week structured training programme about person-centred care. The programme&#39;s effectiveness was proven by using the Global Behavior Scale. Then a qualitative descriptive phenomenological approach was used to explore the impact of applying this programme on professional caregivers&#39; burden. Data were collected from a sample of 10 professional caregivers using semi-structured interviews. A total of three themes were identified: acceptance of disease-related behaviours of people with Alzheimer&#39;s, therapeutic understanding of people with Alzheimer&#39;s feelings (empathy) and enhanced caregivers&#39; adaptation to people with Alzheimer&#39;s demands (resiliency). Findings suggested that adopting person-centred care approach for people with Alzheimer&#39;s disease reduces professional car...

Prevalence studies show high levels of burnout, anxiety, fatigue and other symptoms of distress among medical doctors. However, there are very few randomized controlled trials testing interventions against these problems. This randomized controlled trial (NCT02838290; ClinicalTrials.gov, 2016) tested interventions teaching 227 doctors about the psychology of burnout, stress, coping with patient death, and managing distress, as well as giving them information about prevalence rates among doctors. Primary outcomes included burnout, anxiety, insomnia, grief, alcohol/drug use, binge eating, physical symptoms, and psychiatric morbidity. The outcomes were tested before and after the interventions with a 7-day time-lag. The intervention significantly decreased doctors’ levels of burnout (e.g. emotional exhaustion and depersonalization) and anxiety. Doctors in the control group had no significant changes in these signs of distress. The intervention did not significantly reduce other health and habit-related outcomes potentially because these need a longer time-lag than 7 days. Interventions teaching doctors about the psychology of work-related distress reduce burnout and anxiety by helping doctors realize that distress is a normal, human reaction to external stressors, common in medicine, and solvable by learning about psychological coping strategies.

Primeiramente, devido à sua atual dimensão, o burnout deve ser tratado como um problema de saúde pública ou coletiva. O seu impacto nas sociedades, nas organizações e na vida das pessoas é suficientemente grave para que esta síndrome seja apenas tratada como fruto de personalidades mais frágeis ou inadaptadas, o que significaria que este problema seria essencialmente de natureza individual. Mas não é!

This study sought to identify and analyse the relationships between burnout syndrome, occupational stress and pleasure and suffering at work from young Brazilian workers’ perspective. The research was conducted with a probabilistic sample of younger employees living in São Paulo, Brazil, who returned 493 valid questionnaires. The data were submitted to exploratory factor analysis, followed by structural equation modelling. The results highlight stress symptoms’ influence on defensive strategies, which in turn directly enhance pleasure and reduce suffering at work. Pleasure and suffering are both positively and negatively related to burnout dimensions.

Counselling y cuidados paliativos es el título del libro escrito por la doctora Esperanza Santos y el profesor José Carlos Bermejo. En esta obra, de fácil lectura y con consejos muy prácticos y útiles, se presentan elementos fundamentales para brindar un acompañamiento de óptima calidad en el cuidado paliativo, así como la posibilidad de hacer un autoexamen de cómo los cuidadores de los pacientes prestan sus servicios e incluso para no caer en burnout. Este libro es de gran utilidad, tanto para los profesionales de la salud que trabajan en las unidades de cuidados paliativos, como para personas que dedican gran parte de su tiempo al cuidado de familiares con enfermedades terminales, o que pasan por procesos prolongados de enfermedad. Con ejemplos de conversaciones de la vida real entre cuidadores y pacientes, la lectura del libro se hace, a la vez, agradable, divertida y profundamente reflexiva.

Poche figure professionali vivono una quotidiana esposizione alla sofferenza come gli operatori sociali. Una sofferenza che oggi è alimentata da più fonti: non solo dalla vicinanza a storie segnate da marginalità, abuso e malattia, ma più in generale da un clima culturale che legittima poco i valori di solidarietà e cittadinanza, nonché da una crisi di risorse che genera sempre più affanni. Diventa perciò vitale per gli operatori sviluppare la capacità di fronteggiare la sofferenza alla quale si trovano esposti, perché altrimenti finiscono per esserne travolti oppure per proteggersene in modi poco funzionali rispetto al compito di aiuto al quale sono tenuti. L'articolo esplora le dimensioni della sofferenza professionale dell'operatore e offre delle indicazioni per gestirla e rielaborarla in modo funzionale al compito di aiuto e al benessere personale.

Resumen
En México la investigación sobre policías se sigue relacionando con aspectos críticos y negativos como la corrupción omitiendo la detección de necesidades psicológicas en los policías como el burnout y sus posibles consecuencias negativas como la agresividad. Por ello este trabajo explora la existencia de estas dos variables en policías ministeriales mexicanos con el objetivo de coadyuvar en el conocimiento de este colectivo en el país. Método: Investigación exploratoria, descriptiva y transversal basada en el estudio de casos de tres policías ministeriales mexicanos que contestaron el Inventario de Burnout de Maslach (Maslach y Jackson, 1981) y el Cuestionario de Agresividad (Buss y Perry, 1992). Resultados: De
acuerdo a los análisis descriptivos realizados se hallaron niveles medios-altos de burnout y algunos resultados contradictorios en los niveles de agresividad. Se interpretan los resultados a
la luz de los antecedentes teóricos disponibles sobre burnout en policías. Conclusiones: Al tratarse de un estudio exploratorio y no concluyente se sugiere que, desde una perspectiva de la psicología policial, se continúe investigando con el estudio del burnout en el sector policial para poder prevenir sus consecuencias indeseables como la agresividad.
Palabras clave: Burnout, agresividad, policía, mexicano.

Abstract
ABSTRACT
In Mexico research about police is still associated with critical and negative issues as corruption detection omitting psychological needs in the policemen as the presence of burnout and its negative consequences as aggressiveness. Therefore, this paper explores the existence of these two variables in Mexican judicial policemen in order to assist in the understanding of this group in the country. Method: exploratory, descriptive and transversal research based on case
studies of three Mexican judicial police who answered the  Maslach Burnout Inventory (Maslach and Jackson, 1981) and Aggression Questionnaire (Buss and Perry, 1992). Results: According to the descriptive analysis there were burnout medium-high levels and some contradictory levels of aggressiveness were found. Results were interpreted in light of the theoretical background available on burnout in police. Conclusions: Exploratory and inconclusive results of this work suggested that, from the perspective of police psychology, it is necessary more research of burnout in the police sector to prevent its undesirable consequences such as aggressiveness.
Keywords: Burnout, aggressiveness, policemen, Mexican.