Hammond Trent E, Crowther Andrew, Drummond Sally
Division of Student Services, Charles Sturt University, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
School of Nursing, Midwifery and Indigenous Health, Faculty of Science, Charles Sturt University, Albury-Wodonga, NSW, Australia.
Front Psychol. 2018 Jan 19;8:1996. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01996. eCollection 2017.
Burnout is conceptualized as a syndrome that consists of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and decreased personal accomplishment. Despite the increased frequency and severity of burnout in the Western world, there is limited published research regarding the experiences of clinical psychologists who have had burnout. The present study examines clinical psychologists' different experiences of burnout in Australia. In the year 2015, six privately practicing and solo-employed clinical psychologists provided rich qualitative data by participating in semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis was the method used to analyze clinical psychologists' natural accounts of their burnout experiences. Using NVivo, emerging themes were identified through coding 'first order constructs' and then axial code 'second order constructs.' Clinical psychologists indicated that their roles are demanding and a diverse range of symptoms, including the enduring effects of burnout, mental stress, fatigue, decreased personal accomplishment, negative affect, depersonalization, reduced productivity and motivation, and insomnia. They identified precursors of burnout, including excessive workload and hours of work, life stresses, mismanaged workload, and transference. Clinical psychologists suggested that protective factors of burnout include knowledge and years worked in direct care, and trusting and long-term relationships. They indicated that the barriers to overcoming burnout include the fallacy that their clients' expectations and needs are more important than their own, the financial cost of working in private practice, contemporary knowledge and inadequate education regarding self-care, and time constraints. The findings presented in this study provide psychologists and other health professionals with an insight about the burnout experience and inform professionals of the mental shortcomings of working as a solo-practicing clinical psychologist. Findings from this study should lead to an increased understanding of the complexities of burnout, and ultimately reduced cases of burnout, absenteeism, and staff disengagement.
职业倦怠被概念化为一种由情感耗竭、去个性化和个人成就感降低组成的综合征。尽管在西方世界职业倦怠的发生频率和严重程度有所增加，但关于经历过职业倦怠的临床心理学家的经验的已发表研究却很有限。本研究考察了澳大利亚临床心理学家职业倦怠的不同经历。2015年，六位私人执业的独立临床心理学家通过参与半结构化访谈提供了丰富的定性数据。主题分析是用于分析临床心理学家对其职业倦怠经历的自然描述的方法。使用NVivo软件，通过对“一阶结构”进行编码，然后对“二阶结构”进行轴心编码来识别新出现的主题。临床心理学家表示，他们的工作要求很高，会出现各种各样的症状，包括职业倦怠的持久影响、精神压力、疲劳、个人成就感降低、消极情绪、去个性化、生产力和动力下降以及失眠。他们确定了职业倦怠的先兆，包括工作量过大和工作时间过长、生活压力、工作量管理不善以及移情。临床心理学家提出，职业倦怠的保护因素包括在直接护理方面所具备的知识和工作年限，以及信任和长期关系。他们指出，克服职业倦怠的障碍包括一种错误观念——认为客户的期望和需求比自己的更重要、私人执业的财务成本、关于自我护理的当代知识和教育不足以及时间限制。本研究呈现的结果为心理学家和其他健康专业人员提供了关于职业倦怠经历的见解，并让专业人员了解作为独立执业临床心理学家工作时的心理短板。本研究的结果应能增进对职业倦怠复杂性的理解，并最终减少职业倦怠、旷工和员工离职的案例。
