Katerina Georganta

“Diagnosing” burnout among healthcare professionals: Can we find consensus?

Abstract Burnout is an established phenomenon across cultures and occupations. The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) is the most commonly used measure of burnout. The MBI delineates burnout according to three components (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment) and provides the opportunity to assign a classification of burnout. However, the criteria of what constitutes burnout and/or low, medium or high burnout varies considerably. In the following paper, we have systematically reviewed studies of healthcare professionals that specifically “diagnose” burnout. Results indicate multiple approaches to assigning different levels of burnout. The need for a consensus on how to classify different degrees of burnout is discussed.

Organizational Health Intervention Research in Medical Settings

Medical settings, especially hospitals, represent a challenging environment in which to conduct organizational health interventions. This is due to the fact that healthcare professionals tend to hold pathogenic rather than salutogenic views about health and well-being. Additionally, healthcare professional identity and sense of coherence is deeply embedded in role behaviors (i.e., I am a doctor) rather than organizational awareness (i.e., The purpose of the hospital is…). Worksite health promotion interventions in medical settings, despite their prominent character, have yielded mixed results regarding their effectiveness. One of the major challenges is to be both theoretically sound and, at the same time, context appropriate. The proposed chapter will; (1) conceptualize what a health medical organization (hospital) should look like, (2) review organizational health interventions in medical settings in terms of theoretical focus and practical outcomes, (3) identify the salutogenic factors that promote well-being, (4) review the cultural and contextual factors that are barriers to interventions, and (5) reflect on how health intervention researchers can address process and context (intervention) issues in medical setting. All medical settings will be reviewed, but special focus will be given to hospitals and the use of action research which has been extensively used in medical settings.

Burnout: Why Interventions Fail and What Can We Do Differently

Job burnout can have serious personal consequences for individuals, including broken relationships, problematic alcohol use and suicidal ideation. At an organizational level, it is related to reduced productivity, increased absenteeism, job turnover and early retirement. Unfortunately, burnout is noteworthy in that interventions to address it have been largely unsuccessful. Typically, interventions are either person-directed or organization-directed, or a combination of both. Even interventions that are initially successful see positive effects diminish over time. However, the accumulated evidence strongly suggests that the conditions that contribute to the development of burnout are more related to the characteristics of organizations than those of individuals per se. The most probable reason for this is that burnout represents a symptom of organizational dysfunction, not a bona fide outcome per se. In the following chapter we will locate the “real” place of burnout within the organizational system, review the reasons why interventions to address burnout have failed, identify the process and content mechanisms as to why they fail, and argue that Action Research has significant potential to address burnout in organizations.