WEBINAR: DOCTORS WITHOUT BURNOUT AFTER THE HOLIDAYS
The team of “Astra Forum” Foundation would like to invite you to a webinar devoted to the psychic health of medical specialists, arranged with the support of WHO – Bulgaria. The event speakers were doctor Rumyana Dinolova, a psychiatrist, member of the Bulgarian Psychiatric Association, secretary of the Sofia Psychiatric Association, member of the IEPA (International Early Intervention and Prevention in Mental Health Association) and professor PhD Ivet Koleva, doctor of medical sciences, specialist of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine and Neurology.
PROFESSOR KOLEVA PRESENTED THE TOPIC “STRESS, DISTRESS AND BURNOUT: COMPARATIVE RESEARCH AMONG THE MEMBERS OF THE REHABILITATION TEAM AND POTENTIAL OF PHYSICAL FACTORS FOR PREVENTION“.
She started the topic with the clarification that burnout should be considered as a professional phenomenon that impacts all the aspects of personality – physiological, emotional, behavioural, including the occurrence of suicidal thoughts, gastrointestinal irregularities, arterial hypertension,
circulatory and cerebrovascular manifestations, obesity, bronchial asthma, infertility. “Victims of burnout are both the medical specialist as well as the patient him/herself”, professor Koleva shared.
The specialist presented burnout symptoms:
- Physical manifestations – fatigue, sleep pattern changes, increased blood pressure, insomnia, diarrhoea, feeling of tiredness and exhaustion, lowered immunity, muscle tension, weight changes;
- Behavioural manifestations – emotional bursts, impatience and irritability in communication, detachment from friends and family, avoiding discussions with colleagues, work postponement, meetings, contacts or short conversations with clients’ postponement, lowering work activity, loss of attitude;
- Psychological manifestations: cognitive and emotional;
- Cognitive: concentration difficulties, rigid thinking, opposition to changes, irritability, anger and frustration, loss of interest in work;
- Psychic-emotional: loss of self-respect and confidence in oneself, feeling of inadequacy, helplessness, feeling of guilt and disapproval, sensation of anxiety, sensation of lack of success and failure, anxiety for the future, transferring guilt to others, loss of motivation.
According to professor Koleva, there are four stages of burnout development. “During the first stage, the human is still satisfied with his or her work and keeps doing it with great hope. During the second stage, the inflicted realizes that his or her professional expectations were high and somehow erroneous. He starts working more intensely and continuously, then becomes vague, tired and frustrated. During the third phase, the increased interest in work gradually decreases and the sensation of irritability and fatigue sets in. In order to compensate stress, people use various strategies – alcohol intake, administration of medicines, drugs, shopping passion. In-between the first and the last progression phase many years could pass (3-4, on the average). The main symptom of the last phase is the sensation of being desperate. The person suffering from it starts feeling “drained”.
DOCTOR RUMYANA DINOLOVA PRESENTED THE TOPIC “BURNOUT, DEPRESSION AND SUICIDE – CARE AFTER ONESELF AS A PROFESSIONAL IMPERATIVE”.
According to doctor Dinolova’s opinion, psychic health is something that represents our general condition and includes the personal domain as well as social structures (social policy, housing resources, educational and economic resources). Individual factors and knowledge (emotions, adaptive capacities, subjective dependence, physical health) and cultural values (public significance, equal footing, rules that regulate social relations) also impact the psychic status of each and every of us.
She highlighted the fact that oftentimes we ask ourselves if not burnout is just stress. “Stress is similar to burnout and burnout results from continuous exposure to stress.” “What are the risk factors for the burnout syndrome development? There are two types – exogenous
and endogenous indigenous- personal, namely:
- Exogenous – interpersonal extreme situations in professional day-to-day work; high position at the workplace; spending too much time at the workplace and making too much efforts; extremely high requirements for achieving certain goals; double burden due to family and work reasons;
- Endogenous-personal prerequisites – high motivation; high engagement; purposefulness; perfectionism; need of harmony; idealism.”
Doctor Dinolova highlighted that the burnout result brings about depersonalization, emotional exhaustion and lack of personal satisfaction. “Burnout could result in you not being the person you would like to be or the person you used to be before.”
The specialist presented the 16 warning signs of burnout. Namely: 1) feeling of helplessness and hopelessness, 2) inability to perceive complexity, 3) dissociative moments, 4) anger and cynicism, 5) the feeling we could never do enough, 6) minimization, 7) feeling of being tracked, 8) inability to feel empathy, 9) over-liveliness, 10) chronic fatigue, 11) guilt, 12) dependencies, 13) lowered artistic activity,
14) inability to listen (purposeful avoidance), 15) fear, 16) sensation of prevalence.
During the webinar, the psychiatrist presented couple of facts about suicides committed by doctors (they are the ones who suffer the most from burnout). According to our estimates, 400 doctors die from suicide in the USA annually. “Among doctors, the suicide risk increases when they neglect their psychic health and undergo self-treatment in an attempt to cope with anxiety, insomnia and other worrisome symptoms.“
Additionally, the specialist presented ways for coping with burnout – human interaction with work environment, fairness, presence of community, recruitment strategies in the cases of enrolment in medical schools, promotion of social support, stress management, balint groups.
Professor Koleva ended the topic with the conclusion that doctors resistant to burnout result from excellent tuition in a major that brings them satisfaction, so that they could take exceptional cares after patients with enthusiasm, devotion and compassion. The institutions lucky enough to hire these remunerate them and feed them with reasonable balance stricken between professional and personal life, adaptability to their needs and pride of their scientific operations, lecturing and exceptional cares after their patients and families.
