Stress and Burnout in Health Professionals

Alice Gonçalves,Clara Simães,Liliana Fontes,A Rui Gomes

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-14730-3_60

Alice Gonçalves, Clara Simães + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14730-3_60

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Publication Date: Jan 1, 2019
Citations: 12	License type: cc-by

Affiliation: University of Minho, Universidade Católica Portuguesa

Abstract

Occupational stress and burnout are a global epidemic that can cause severe negative effects on workers’ physical and emotional health. Health professionals working in a hospital setting are especially at risk, due to the inherent characteristics of their work. Consequently, this study aimed to analyse the relationships between stress and burnout in health professionals working in a hospital in the North of Portugal. A convenience sample of 221 health professionals participated in this cross-sectional study and answered two instruments to assess stress and burnout at work. Results showed that stress dimensions, such as the precariousness of the contractual status, the intention to change services, work overload, stress from the work-home interface, relationships at work, leading training activities, and dealing with patients predicted the three dimensions of burnout—physical fatigue, cognitive weariness, and emotional exhaustion. Therefore, these findings contribute to increase the knowledge of health professional’s mental conditions, and can be used to design and implement interventions to mitigate the effects of stress and burnout on these professionals.

Highlights

Occupational stress and burnout have become such a prevalent issue that the World Health Organization characterizes work-related stress as a global epidemic [1]
These findings contribute to increase the knowledge of health professional’s mental conditions, and can be used to design and implement interventions to mitigate the effects of stress and burnout on these professionals
We used hierarchical regression analysis in order to analyse the independent effect of stress dimensions on burnout

Summary

Introduction

Occupational stress and burnout have become such a prevalent issue that the World Health Organization characterizes work-related stress as a global epidemic [1]. It is generally accepted that stress occurs when environmental demands overcome the person’s capacity to adapt, leading to a negative impact on health and wellbeing. In order to understand a person’s adaptation to stress, Lazarus [3] proposed a model with two processes of cognitive appraisal. Secondary cognitive appraisal relates to the way a person evaluates what can be done to deal with the situation, which involves considering the coping resources in order to manage the situation’s demands. When demands are continuously perceived as exceeding the person’s coping resources, especially in a long-term stressful situation, burnout can occur. Burnout can manifest through anxiety, headaches, insomnia, agitation, and sufferance, and physically through higher sensitivity to pain, higher susceptibility to infections, and stomach, cardiac, and vascular problems [4,5]

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