Who is part of the risk group?

Employees in psychiatric wards and outpatient clinics are a so-called high-risk group (due to the nature of their work) who may develop burnout syndrome. Studies have shown that psychiatric nurses experience significant stress when working with seriously mentally ill patients. In addition, staff on psychiatric wards are confronted on a daily basis with the unpredictability of the behaviour of treated patients, often a risk of suicide. But there are also risks associated with aggression, which entails the need for uninterrupted observation of such individuals. Medical staff may experience psychological discomfort related to the treatment of patients admitted against their will. The discomfort is also related to the limitation of the possibility to communicate with the patient due to the symptoms of the disease (disorders of consciousness, thinking, perception). A significant problem carrying a high stress burden is the commission of suicide by the patient. This is a burden for the doctor both professionally and personally. Staff in psychiatric wards are less prepared to deal with the death of patients than doctors in other specialities. Suicide in psychiatry is treated as a failure of the therapy applied and not as a consequence of a progressive illness. After the death of a patient suffering from a mental disorder, staff may experience feelings of grief, guilt, anger, sadness as well as loss of hope, and a sense of professional incompetence may emerge, resulting in symptoms of professional burnout.

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Sources of professional burnout

The sources of professional burnout can be found in three areas. These are:

• personality traits,
• attitude to work,
• work structure and organisation.

As far as personality tra its are concerned, it is mainly unsupported self-esteem, uncertainty and doubt in one's own abilities, low self-esteem, difficulties in expressing one's own emotions. Professional burnout also affects people with certain personality predispositions such as high ambition, perfectionism, a high need for achievement, a tendency to compete.

The attitude to work can also be a source of the symptoms of burnout - it is the lack of motivation to work, the disappearance of motivation while acting, the lack of a sense of competence, over-involvement in work leading to a blurring of the boundaries between work and personal life, the lack of opportunities to develop skills and competences.

The sources of job burnout can also be found in the structure and organisation of work. It is, above all, work that requires a high level of personal commitment and responsibility, there is competition between employees, work that requires constant attention, tension, work that puts a lot of physical and mental strain, and finally a low professional status and prestige, as well as remuneration that is inadequate for the effort put into one's work.

An important question is whether you yourself can recognise the symptoms of burnout syndrome. A list of so-called warning signs developed by Kaslow and Schulman can help here.

They suggest paying attention to aspects such as:

• reluctance accompanying going out to work,
• constant complaints about a perceived lack of desire to work,
• a feeling of isolation from the world,
• perception of life as being hard,
• a high number of negative transfers in contacts with patients,
• irritability,
• lack of patience in relations with the family,
• frequent illnesses without identifiable causes.

This awareness of the phenomenon of professional burnout is the first step towards change.