Burnout syndrome in physiotherapists working in the Podkarpackie province in Poland

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Burnout is most often referred to as a syndrome of characteristic mental and somatic symptoms, which are the result of chronic stress most often associated with professional work. OBJECTIVE:The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of burnout syndrome among physiotherapists and its determinants related to sex, age, education, workplace, occupational activity, work experience and financial situation. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Eighty-six professionally active full-time physiotherapists participated in the study. Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) was used to measure burnout. RESULTS: In the examined group of physiotherapists, we observed a low level of Emotional Exhaustion (x = 15.99) and Depersonalization level (x = 4.31), while Personal Accomplishment was moderate but approaching high level (x = 31.63). A significant relationship between sex, education, work experience, place of work, scope of professional activities, financial situation, and individual dimensions of burnout syndrome were observed. CONCLUSION: A significantly reduced sense of personal accomplishment occurred commonly in a studied group of physiotherapists. Professional burnout is most likely to occur in men, in people with higher education, in those working in hospital departments with more work experience, and those in a poor financial situation. Employers should take care of their employees' mental health as a part of burnout prophylaxis.

Burnout in Portuguese physiotherapists during COVID‐19 pandemic

“…In Portugal, the income of physiotherapists with only one employment is low. As reported by Bejer et al., low income requires additional employment which results in additional workload (Bejer et al., 2019), which is associated with higher levels of burnout (Seixas et al., 2020). Moreover, the uncertainty generated by the pandemic may also play a role in burnout development.…”

Reappraising Burnout Syndrome in Healthcare under Sars-Cov-2 Pandemic

“…As already mentioned, this syndrome is associated with health problems that transcend the realm of mental health [13,22,41] since physical symptoms have been reported (e.g. myalgias [25,41] headaches [10,19,45] prolonged fatigue [19,26,57,87]), respiratory diseases [25] cardiovascular diseases [28 41,56,87] dyslipidemia [28] overweight [28] gastrointestinal disorders [29,41,49] and appetite alterations [19].…”

“…Burnout Syndrome 1 was first described by Freudenbergen in 1974 [1][2][3] comprising a set of non specific physical and psychological symptoms [4] resulting from overwork [5]. Later, in 2001, Maslach, Schaufeil and Leiter [6] considered it a three-dimensional occupational syndrome [7][8][9][10][11] characterized by Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization and loss of Personal Achievement at Work [12][13][14] which would become used in most future studies. Today Burnout is a condition of physical and psychological exhaustion [15][16][17][18] resulting from chronic exposure [19][20][21] to work stressors [3,14,[22][23][24].…”

“…Today Burnout is a condition of physical and psychological exhaustion [15][16][17][18] resulting from chronic exposure [19][20][21] to work stressors [3,14,[22][23][24]. Emotional exhaustion [2,10] is the central component [25] of the syndrome and is characterized by physical and mental fatigue [24], lack of energy to complete tasks [5] and the feeling of being unable to renew energy [26]. Depersonalization [2,10] refers to a painful detachment from oneself [25], in particular from one's emotions, that determines unemphatic poises and callous traits [26] and reconfiguring the attitudes in the workplace [24].…”

“…Emotional exhaustion [2,10] is the central component [25] of the syndrome and is characterized by physical and mental fatigue [24], lack of energy to complete tasks [5] and the feeling of being unable to renew energy [26]. Depersonalization [2,10] refers to a painful detachment from oneself [25], in particular from one's emotions, that determines unemphatic poises and callous traits [26] and reconfiguring the attitudes in the workplace [24]. The feeling of loss of personal fulfillment [2] consists of inner experiences of incompetence [26], lower self-efficacy, and reduced job performance [23,25], as well as an overall sense of frustration [5] to professional activity.…”