Burnt out or fired up? Helping recovery in distressed patients can increase our own resilience

Abstract

Burnout has become a major concern in general practice in the UK, with high levels of exhaustion, depersonalisation, and low levels of personal effectiveness. A study in 2011 suggested that burnout was allied to pessimism.1 With the major systemic problems in general practice in the NHS, such as shifts in funding, pay cuts, staff wastage, and contractual chaos, the need to be resilient, to foster better coping and creative solutions, has never been more pressing. Resilience is a concept from materials science representing the ability to return to a previous state of resistance without deformation or loss of elasticity. Psychological resilience is similar, but additionally encompasses the concept of growth from stressful experiences, ‘bouncing forwards’, to become more resilient in the future. In psychological research the effect of resilience on growth and optimism under stress has been shown to be strongly mediated by frequency of access to positive emotions.2 There are a number of cognitive enhancements that are associated with the experience of positive emotions, including cognitive flexibility, creative and detailed problem solving, better working memory, and increased prosocial behaviours, such as compassion and generosity, increased social inclusion, and ability to focus effectively on negative information.3 Relevant studies conducted …