Emotional burnout syndrome and medical professions: experience and elevation - evaluation at psychological medical training

Abstract

The emotional burnout syndrome as a consequence of the individual psychological protection in response to stressful situations is formed gradually over a continuous period of work. Objective: The emotional burnout syndrome occurrence frequency comparative evaluation during psychological medical training of health professionals, residents and students. Materials and methods: The emotional burnout syndrome evaluation was carried out at psychological training during medical simulation with complete anonymity and voluntariness. The training was attended by 327 people with the emotional burnout syndrome diagnosis in 297 persons (91%), using developed by ourselves questionnaire «Evaluation of emotional burnout syndrome». The emotional burnout syndrome levels as a result of responses processing were determined as absence, low, medium and high. The questionnaires were performed in three groups: the first one - 174 sixth year medical students; the second group - 83 different specialities residents; the third one - 70 various specialities physicians. Results: The emotional burnout syndrome absence was surveyed in 122 of the students (70,1%) of the first group; low level - in 43 (24,7%); average level - in 9 (5,2%) of the first group students. In the second group, the emotional burnout syndrome absence was observed only in 19,3% - 16 residents; the low level in 61 persons - 73,5%; the average level was detected in 3,6% - 3 residents. There was no significant difference between the obtained data from the first and second group. The highest level of emotional burnout syndrome with the significant differences when comparing to both the first and second groups was shown among various specialities physicians with high level in 7 of them - 10%; average - in 46 persons (65,7%); low - in 17 physicians (24,3%). During the last several years we studied the subject of health care workers’ efficiency improvement due to the modern training technologies introduction. The medical professionals’ emotional burnout syndrome prevention should be conducted early during undergraduate education at the Medical University. Our experience shows the real possibility of stress-resistance improvement as one of the important professional qualities of a future specialist. Conclusion: Questioning during the psychological medical simulation training is an effective method of emotional burnout syndrome level detection. The emotional burnout syndrome often occurs in practical physicians and is associated with a variety of internal and external factors that require further detailed study. Our experience of psychological training in simulation study shows that it is an effective tool to help physicians who are at risk of emotional burnout syndrome.