TITLE:
Preventive care for burnout: General practitioner pilot program in Barcelona
AUTHORS:
Jorge L. Tizón, Pau Gràcia, Anna Larripa, Jordi Artigue, Josep Casajuana
KEYWORDS:
Burnout; Psychopathology; Preventive Programs; Professional health; Mental Health
JOURNAL NAME:
Health,
Vol.5 No.6B,
June
17,
2013
ABSTRACT: Background: Despite the prevalence of “professsional
exhaustion syndrome” or “burnout”, very few intervention programs for
healthcare professionals have been proposed, and even fewer have been
evaluated. The Catalan Health Institute requested an intervention that would be
preventive, integrated, and would differentiate between those affected by
burnout and those with established psychopathologic disorders requiring
specific treatment. Aims: To describe the experience and initial reflections
from the first cohort of primary care physicians in the Barcelona public health
system to participate in a program designed to prevent burnout. Methods:
Descriptive analysis of the characteristics of this secondary prevention
program: design, cost estimates, recruitment and screening, and activities (training,
organization, and group techniques). Particular emphasis on the process of
identifying potentially affected professionals, how they were offered the
opportunity to participate, and the coordinated and confidential nature of
the program. Results: Of a target population of 969 family doctors and pediatricians in public primary care services in Barcelona, 6 (0.61%) applied for
full program participation. All of them, along with 2 non-medical professionals in primary care
services who joined the program, met the clinical and psychometric criteria
(Shirom-Melamed Burnout Measure, General Health Questionnaire, and the 16 Personality
Factors Questionnaire) of the desired participant profile. Conclusions: The
level of participation could suggest defects in program design or, alternatively,
problems in the concept of burnout. This construct may be more useful for
detecting stress attributed to occupational contexts than for facilitating
participation in activities related to its
prevention or treatment.