THE PECULIARITIES OF UKRAINIAN HEALTH WORKERS’ PROFESSIONAL BURNOUT

Abstract

The article examines the health workers’ professional burnout manifestations. The results of the research on differences between doctors and nurses regarding the specifics of their professional burnout, their use of coping strategies, the qualities of emotional intelligence and communicative competence are described. The sensitivity work periods for professional burnout formation at doctors and nurses, as well as differences in value orientations of the specified groups depending on deepness of their professional burnout are established. The comparison of the work experience and the burnout stages shows that the sensitivity work periods for burnout formation are 11 to 20 years of work for the doctors, and from 1 to 10 years of work for nurses (on the basis of professional experience comparison with the burnout stages). Nurses generally have a slightly deeper professional burnout in comparison with doctors. The only difference in the used coping strategies between the doctors and the nurses is that the doctors are more adaptable than the nurses; they more often use coping strategies for responsibility acceptance and positive reappraisal. The junior medical staff is more likely to experience burnout. In general, nurses have lower emotional intelligence than doctors. As for correlations between the indicators demonstrating the dynamics of professional burnout and the structural elements of emotional intelligence, there are significant reliable negative correlations between the doctors’ professional burnout and control over own emotions and self-motivation. As for the studied nurses, there are the significant reliable negative correlations between professional burnout and such elements of professional intelligence as recognition of the emotions of others, empathy, and control over their own emotions (the last indicator in corresponds with the results obtained for the doctors). There is a tendency to increased use of the dependent communicative style by the doctors and the aggressive style by the nurses with the deepening of professional burnout. The professional burnout deepening increases significance of the health value for the doctors, as well as decreases importance of professional growth for both the doctors and the nurses. The techniques for psychological debriefing in the structure of the supervision method are proposed to overcome the problem of emotional burnout.

Keywords

• professional work
• health workers
• professional stress
• professional burnout
• coping strategy
• supervision
• psychological debriefing