Atkinson David M, Rodman John L, Thuras Paul D, Shiroma Paulo R, Lim Kelvin O
1 Minneapolis VA Health Care System , Minneapolis, MN.
2 Department of Psychiatry, University of Minnesota , Minneapolis, MN.
J Altern Complement Med. 2017 Jul;23(7):551-557. doi: 10.1089/acm.2017.0087. Epub 2017 Jun 7.
Burnout, a state of emotional exhaustion associated with negative personal and occupational outcomes, is prevalent among healthcare providers. A better understanding of the psychological factors that may be associated with resilience to burnout is essential to develop effective interventions. Self-compassion, which includes kindness toward oneself, recognition of suffering as part of shared human experience, mindfulness, and nonjudgment toward inadequacies and failures, may be one such factor. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between burnout, depression, and self-compassion in Veterans Affairs (VA) mental health staff.
Cross-sectional study.
VA medical center and affiliated community-based clinics.
VA mental health staff.
The 19-item Copenhagen Burnout Inventory, the 26-item Self-Compassion Scale, and the Patient Health Questionnaire 2-item depression screen. Demographic information included age, sex, years worked in current position, and number of staff supervised.
One hundred and twenty-eight of a potential 379 individuals (33.8%) responded. Clerical support, nursing, social work, psychology, and psychiatry were the major professions represented. Self-compassion was inversely correlated with burnout (r = -0.41, p < 0.001), and inversely correlated with depression (r = -0.39, p < 0.001). The inverse relationship between self-compassion and burnout remained significant even after accounting for depressive symptoms and demographic variables in a multiple linear regression model. Of all the variables examined, self-compassion was the strongest predictor of burnout.
The results of this study support the hypothesis that self-compassion may be associated with resilience to burnout. Alternatively, decreased self-compassion may be a downstream effect of increased burnout. Prospective, longitudinal studies are needed to determine the directional relationship between these factors, and whether interventions that cultivate self-compassion may decrease burnout and/or protect against its negative personal and professional outcomes.
职业倦怠是一种与负面个人和职业后果相关的情绪耗竭状态，在医疗保健提供者中普遍存在。更好地理解可能与职业倦怠恢复力相关的心理因素对于制定有效的干预措施至关重要。自我同情包括善待自己、认识到痛苦是人类共同经历的一部分、正念以及不对不足和失败进行评判，可能是这样一个因素。本研究的目的是探讨退伍军人事务（VA）心理健康工作人员的职业倦怠、抑郁和自我同情之间的关系。
横断面研究。
VA医疗中心及附属社区诊所。
VA心理健康工作人员。
19项哥本哈根职业倦怠量表、26项自我同情量表和患者健康问卷2项抑郁筛查。人口统计学信息包括年龄、性别、现任职位工作年限和监督的员工数量。
在379名潜在个体中，128人（33.8%）做出了回应。主要代表职业包括文书支持、护理、社会工作、心理学和精神病学。自我同情与职业倦怠呈负相关（r = -0.41，p < 0.001），与抑郁呈负相关（r = -0.39，p < 0.001）。即使在多元线性回归模型中考虑了抑郁症状和人口统计学变量后，自我同情与职业倦怠之间的负相关关系仍然显著。在所有检查的变量中，自我同情是职业倦怠的最强预测因素。
本研究结果支持以下假设，即自我同情可能与职业倦怠恢复力相关。或者，自我同情的降低可能是职业倦怠增加的下游效应。需要进行前瞻性纵向研究来确定这些因素之间的方向关系，以及培养自我同情的干预措施是否可以减少职业倦怠和/或预防其负面的个人和职业后果。
