Abstract
Those in the medical profession, due to close contact and the emotional commitment of caring for patients, are particularly vulnerable to the occurrence of a phenomenon known as occupational ‘burnout’. The presented work deals with the problem of burnout and its relationship with new tasks undertaken by nurses. The aim of the study was an analysis of the relationship between the level of professional burnout of the nurses examined and their readiness to take on new duties related to writing prescriptions. The study was conducted among primary health care (PHC) and outpatient specialist care (OSC) nurses. The author’s questionnaire and the standardized Link Burnout Questionnaire (LBQ) were used. The highest level of occupational burnout was related to psychophysical exhaustion (16.00 ± 6.21). Higher results of occupational burnout among the nurses surveyed were matched by the lower readiness of the nurses to administer medicines and write prescriptions.
Highlights
The medical profession is characterized by intense and close contact with other people as well as high emotional involvement
The highest level of occupational burnout was related to psychophysical exhaustion (16.00 ± 6.21)
The second group in terms of numbers was represented by nurses with the professional title of Bachelor of Nursing with 157 respondents (20.8%), and the third group was composed of participants with higher education, at 104 respondents (13.8%)
Summary
The medical profession is characterized by intense and close contact with other people as well as high emotional involvement. This situation may result in a dangerous phenomenon referred to as ‘burnout’ syndrome [1]. Freudenberger was the first to describe the burnout syndrome in literature, describing it as a state of exhaustion caused by excessive demands [3]. According to Maslach and Jackson, professional burnout is a syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a reduced sense of one’s own accomplishments that can occur in people who work with people, where they assume excessive involvement which is linked with a very strong emotional identification with work [6]. On the other hand Pines and Aronson present occupational burnout as a state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion that is caused by prolonged emotional involvement [5,7]
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