Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Messina, Messina, Italy.
Palliative home care services, Sisifo-Consortium of Social Cooperatives, Catania, Italy.
PLoS One. 2020 May 18;15(5):e0233173. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0233173. eCollection 2020.
Although burnout syndrome has been investigated in depth, studies specifically focused on palliative home care are still limited. Moreover, there is still a lack of evidence regarding the interplay between emotional flexibility and sensitivity to context in preventing burnout in home care settings. For these reasons, the aims of this study were to examine burnout symptoms among practitioners specializing in palliative home care and to investigate the role of regulatory flexibility and sensitivity to context in understanding burnout. An exploratory cross-sectional design was adopted. A convenience sample (n = 65) of Italian specialist palliative care practitioners participated in this study. Participants were recruited between February and April 2019 from two palliative home care services that predominantly cared for end-of-life cancer patients. The Italian version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), the Flexible Regulation of Emotional Expression (FREE) scale (a measure of emotional flexibility), and the Context Sensitivity Index (CSI) (a measure of sensitivity to context) were administered. Analyses of variance were conducted using the three MBI factors as dependent variables and profession as an independent variable. Subsequently, three identical analyses of covariance were conducted with age, work experience, flexibility and sensitivity to context as covariates. The results showed a low burnout risk for all three of the MBI factors, and there were no gender differences. An ANOVA revealed a significant effect of profession type and age on the emotional exhaustion factor of the MBI, and an ANCOVA indicated that these effects persisted after covariates were accounted for. The results also showed a significant effect of the FREE score on emotional exhaustion. These findings can help explain the differential contributions of profession type and age to the burnout symptoms investigated. In addition, the emotional flexibility component, as an aspect of resilience, represents a significant and specific factor of emotional exhaustion. Interventions to prevent burnout must consider these relationships.
尽管 burnout 综合征已经得到了深入研究，但专门针对姑息治疗家庭护理的研究仍然有限。此外，关于情绪灵活性和对环境的敏感性在预防家庭护理环境中的倦怠方面的相互作用，仍然缺乏证据。出于这些原因，本研究的目的是检查专门从事姑息治疗家庭护理的从业者的倦怠症状，并探讨调节灵活性和对环境的敏感性在理解倦怠中的作用。采用了探索性的横断面设计。本研究招募了来自两家主要为临终癌症患者提供姑息治疗的家庭护理服务的意大利姑息治疗专业人员（n=65）。参与者于 2019 年 2 月至 4 月期间招募。意大利版的 Maslach 倦怠量表（MBI）、灵活表达情绪的调节（FREE）量表（情绪灵活性的衡量标准）和情境敏感度指数（CSI）（对环境的敏感度的衡量标准）被用于调查。使用三个 MBI 因子作为因变量，专业作为自变量进行方差分析。随后，使用年龄、工作经验、灵活性和对环境的敏感性作为协变量进行了三次相同的协方差分析。结果表明，所有三个 MBI 因子的倦怠风险都较低，且性别差异不显著。方差分析显示，专业类型和年龄对 MBI 的情绪耗竭因子有显著影响，协方差分析表明，在考虑了协变量后，这种影响仍然存在。结果还显示 FREE 分数对情绪耗竭有显著影响。这些发现可以帮助解释不同的专业类型和年龄对所研究的倦怠症状的不同贡献。此外，作为韧性的一个方面，情绪灵活性成分代表了情绪耗竭的一个重要和特定的因素。预防倦怠的干预措施必须考虑到这些关系。
