TITLE:
Psycho-Social Hazards for Staff in Geriatrics and Geriatric Psychiatry
AUTHORS:
Philippe Thomas, Remy Billon, Jean Albert Chaumier, Geraldine Barruche, Cyril Hazif Thomas
KEYWORDS:
Burnout; Compassion Satisfaction, Compassion Fatigue, Harassment, Caregiver; Medical Doctor, Geriatric Psychiatry, Geriatrics, Working Conditions
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Psychiatry,
Vol.4 No.2,
April
15,
2014
ABSTRACT: Context: Exposure to
burnout of staff involved with elderly patients is dependent on many factors
either personal or linked to the professional environment. Social stress and
systemic problems created particularly by difficulties inherent in the French
hospital management system and the way people feel it, lead to a risk of
burnout. One illustration of this
is the rise in suicides at work. Quality of life at work, harassment and
psycho-social risks are intimately linked. Affective factors, such as suffering
for the medical carers in response to the distress of their patients aggravate
the risk of burnout. Methods: We have evaluated these parameters using a
self-filled questionnaire form sent to all staff and filled in by computer,
anonymously, in 4 establishments, in December 2012 and over the first semester
of 2013. After the three factors studied by the ProQOL scale of quality of life
at work, to do with burnout, satisfaction compassion and fatigue compassion, 5
other questions were added, connected with a feeling of harassment and several
social and demographic matters. Burnout risk was retained on reaching a
threshold of 30 for this ProQOL scale item. Results: After multivariate
analysis including the parameters of the Stamm scale, harassment and the
socio-demographic factors studied, (age, sex, seniority, profession, and work
departments) 4 factors are significantly associated with the risk of burnout,
one negatively, compassion satisfaction, three positively, compassion fatigue,
harassment experience and seniority. Conclusions: The risk of burnout is linked
to subjective factors—the way quality of life at work is perceived and
harassment experienced. Some professions, such as nurses, are particularly
exposed and require these risk factors to be foreseen.