Professional Burnout as the State and Process – What to Do?

The professional staff in human service institutions is often required to spend time in intense involvement with other people. Frequently, the staff-client interaction is centred around the client’s current problems (psychological, social, and/ or physical) and is therefore charged with feelings of anger, embarrassment, fear or despair. In this article we follow the burnout which could not be only the consequence of such job characteristics but could appear also as the result of type of work organization, social relationships, and some bodies personal characteristics as life style, too. Moreover, it can be a consequence of a disturbed balance between give and take at all three levels of social exchange – at interpersonal, at the team, and at the organizational level. So burnout is not only the problem of individuals but also the problem of social environment in which they work. The workplaces shape how people interact with another and how they carry out their jobs. In addition, we try to find the ways how to prevent or to reduce burnout, too. So we present the theories of social comparison (Festinger, 1954; Schachter, 1959), equity theory (Walster and Berscheid, 1978), as also the Kahn’s model of employee engagement (1990) and the Schaufeli- Buunk’s integrative comprehensive social exchange model (1993) as the possible key to help individuals and organization. In this context V. also Frankl’s logo therapy (sense of purpose, 1960) became much more important as the theories of positive (Seligman, 2000) and humanistic psychology (Maslow, 1971, 1987; Rogers, 1959), too

Professional Burnout as the State and Process – What to Do?

The professional staff in human service institutions is often required to spend time in intense involvement with other people. Frequently, the staff-client interaction is centred around the client’s current problems (psychological, social, and/ or physical) and is therefore charged with feelings of anger, embarrassment, fear or despair. In this article we follow the burnout which could not be only the consequence of such job characteristics but could appear also as the result of type of work organization, social relationships, and some bodies personal characteristics as life style, too. Moreover, it can be a consequence of a disturbed balance between give and take at all three levels of social exchange – at interpersonal, at the team, and at the organizational level. So burnout is not only the problem of individuals but also the problem of social environment in which they work. The workplaces shape how people interact with another and how they carry out their jobs. In addition, we try to find the ways how to prevent or to reduce burnout, too. So we present the theories of social comparison (Festinger, 1954; Schachter, 1959), equity theory (Walster and Berscheid, 1978), as also the Kahn’s model of employee engagement (1990) and the Schaufeli- Buunk’s integrative comprehensive social exchange model (1993) as the possible key to help individuals and organization. In this context V. also Frankl’s logo therapy (sense of purpose, 1960) became much more important as the theories of positive (Seligman, 2000) and humanistic psychology (Maslow, 1971, 1987; Rogers, 1959), too

THE SENSETIVENESS AND FULFILLMENT OF Psychological NEEDS: Medical, Health Care and Students

Abstract As health was defined as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely an absence of disease or infirmity, the bio-psychosocial paradigm of health and illness attests that curing occurs when the science of medicine (the biomedical and pathos-physiological aspects of disease) and the art of medicine (the psychological, social, and interpersonal aspects of illness) merge into one unified holistic approach to patient care (Hojat, 2007). In this context the relationship between health care professionals and patients also become an indispensable tool in clinical situations to achieve better patient outcomes (Engel, 1990)3. In our pilot study in year 2009 we try to verify how are the medical students and students of health care (Universityof Maribor, Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of Health Care) prepared for their sensitive professional relationship in their future. Testing together 211 students (N= 157 women, N=57 men), we compared the level of emotional empathy, altruistic love, values, and behaviour of 40 medical students, 118 students of health care and the group of 53 students of economics. Because of their professional choice, we expected that the medical and health care students would have higher empathy and altruism scores than the students of economics. Following the self-determination behavioural theory and its concept of autonomy support (Deci, Ryan, 2000)3, we anticipated also that the fulfilment of basic psychological needs could be important factor in everyday health care clinical practice. As the fulfilment of needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness could lead to increased autonomy supportive orientation in interactions with other subjects, and can be useful factor that prepare doctors or nurses for active participation in relationship with patients, we verified and compared the included groups also in this way

The Biopsychosocial Model of Treatment the Patients with Inflammatory Chronic Bowel Disease

We present the organised psychological group interventions for persons with inflammatory bowel disease (ulcerose colitis, Morbus Crohn). The actual bio-psychosocial model of health and illness is used to explain the situation of chronically ill patient as stressful life position and their ways of coping with such, health-related problems. Considering that numerous psychological factors can lead to insufficient illness adaptation and (non) adherence to treatment – and all those – to much more complications and higher use of therapies, we try to develop for group of those patients effective model of treatment. The group of 15 gastroenterological patients from treatment in UKC Maribor was included in the psycho-diagnostic procedure (semi-structural interview, The Freiburg’s Personal Inventory, The Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations, Health-related Questionnaire of Quality of Life). The data that we had been gathered were significant to the C-type of coping, found in some other group of chronically ill patients, too. For such persons is typically their low emotions expressiveness, especially negative emotions (sadness, anger). In interpersonal contacts they usually show extreme social agreement and low level of assertiveness. So we formed our therapeutic model and its therapeutic aims to the course of being able to express the emotions, to reach higher personal autonomy, better assertively and self image – which at the end have all greater influence on the human’s quality of life. After therapeutic model and aims of treatment has been formed, patients with inflammatory bowel disease were treated in cognitive-behavioural group, where also C. Roger’s conditions for successful psychotherapy were taken in account and were the part of hole, integrative form of treatment

Pojav izgorevanja med zdravstvenim osebjem

V slovarju besed je izgorevanje opredeljeno kot upad energije in moči, kot izčrpanost zaradi stalnega prenaprezanja, trošenja razpoložljive energije in moči. Stanje je prvi opisal l. 1974. Herbert Freudenberger. Neodvisno, skoraj v istem času, je Maslachova, proučevala načine, kako se s pojavom čustvene ogroženosti spoprijema zdravstveno osebje. Opazila je, da velik del zdravstvenega osebja izkazuje znake čustvene izpraznjenosti, razvije zaradi dela z bolniki, posledično do njih odklonilen odnos, in je zato v njihovi oskrbi manj uspešno (34 % pogostost). Kmalu po prvih opisih pojava, je zanimanje za problematiko izgorevanja neverjetno poraslo. Pojavilo se je kakih 1000 empiričnih raziskav, od tega jih je steklo največ na področju zdravstvene nege (34 %) in šolstva (27 %). Namen tega prispevka pa ni toliko zgoščena predstavitev zgodovine, in tudi ne pojavnosti izgorevanja, pač pa prej vpogled v možne oblike zaščite in pomoči pri delu z ljudmi, in še posebno pri delu z bolniki in njihovimi svojci. Zaradi tega pozornost v članku namenjamo naslednjim temam: – znaki in ocena izgorevanja, – pogostost, vzroki in posledice, – stres in depresija – podobnosti in razlike, – delovna skupina in organizacijske intervencije, – službe organizirane psihološke pomoči

Domestic violence and abuse in intimate relationship from public health perspective

In this article we pay attention to the violence which, due to the fear of social stigma, could be hidden from the public eye for a long time but could have serious health consequences for the individual, family, and society-physical and psychological forms of domestic violence and abuse in male-female intimate relationship. Besides its nature and extent data in general population, we review also the surveys data about its theoretical basis, its risk factors and possible effects on mental and physical health, not only on in conflicts involved partners, but also on family as a whole, and especially on the children that growing up in such a problematic domestic circumstances

Domestic violence and abuse in intimate relationship from public health perspective

In this article we pay attention to the vio- lence which, due to the fear of social stigma, could be hidden from the public eye for a long time but could have serious health consequences for the individual, family, and society – physical and psychological forms of domestic violence and abuse in male-female intimate relationship. Besides its nature and extent data in general population, we review also the surveys data about its theoretical basis, its risk factors and possible effects on mental and physical health, not only on in conflicts involved partners, but also on family as a whole, and especially on the children that growing up in such a problematic domestic circumstances

The effects of psychosocial factors on stress in patients with gynecologic malignancy and their manner of coping with it

V prispevku je v grobem obrisu predstavljena analiza bolezenske situacije bolnic z ginekološkim malignomom. Njihovo soočenje z boleznijo kot je rak, in to z vsemi kasneje predvidenimi terapevtskimi ukrepi, je predstavljena kot stresna situacija, v kateri nas je najbolj zanimal nivo, slog oz. strategije spoprijemanja z njo. Poznavanje procesov obrambnega reagiranja in procesov obvladovanja te situacije naj bi omogočilo oblikovanje ustreznega psihosocialnega tretmana te skupine bolnic.The present paper is a rough outline presenting the analyses of the diseasesituation in patients with gynecologic malignancy. Their confrontation with a disease such as cancer, including all later anticipated therapeutic measures, is presented as a stress situation in which the level or manner of tackling it was most interesting. Knowledge of the processes of defensive reaction as well as of the processes of coping with this situation should makethe information of an adequate psychosocial treatment of this group of patients possible

Materin pogled in odziv na spolno zlorabo otroka

Background: Several researches indicate that most child victims delay disclosing of sexual abuse for significant periods of time. There are numerous reasons as to why children are avoiding the disclosure of the abuse. The aim of this study was to determine how a mother’s response to a child’s allegations impacts the child’s willingness to disclose sexual abuse. Methods: We conducted a retrospective quantitative and qualitative analysis of 73 court-referred cases of child sexual abuse which have been disclosed in Slovenia in the last ten years. All the child victims included in the study were female and the perpetrators adult male persons. The expert opinions were made by the same expert. Results: We realized that, at the occurrence of abuse, the child victims were from 4 to 15 years old and their mean age was at 11. 5 years. About two-thirds of children were victims of the intra-familial type (61.6%) and a little more than one third of extra-familial type of sexual abuse (38.4%). The group of victims with the support of their mothers needed about 9 months to disclose the secret, while the delay of the disclosure in the cases without the support of mothers was much longer (M=6.9 years). Conclusion: For female child victims of sexual abuse the perceived protective attitude of their mothers is very important. Especially when the sexual abuse happened in the family, the mother’s support can attribute to stop the ongoing abuse, eliminate its immediate effects and decrease its likely negative long-term outcome.Izhodišča: Raziskave kažejo, da otroci, ki so žrtve spolne zlorabe, dolgo časa ne spregovorijo o svojih doživetjih. Za to obstajajo številni razlogi. Naš namen je bil ugotoviti, kako se razkritje kaže na Slovenskem, predvsem pa, kako na razkritje vpliva materin odziv na otrokove obtožbe. Metode: Retrospektivno smo izvedli kvantitativno in kvalitativno analizo 73 sodnih mnenj o sumih storjenih spolnih zlorab, opravljenih v zadnjih 10 letih. V raziskavo smo vključili žrtve ženskega spola, storilec pa je bil v vseh primerih odrasel moški. Izvedenec, ki je o sodnih primerih podal mnenje, je bil v vseh primerih ista oseba. Rezultati: Pokazalo se je, da so žrtve spolne zlorabe stare od 4 do 15 let, v povprečju pa 11,5 leta. Okrog dve tretjini teh deklic sta zlorabo doživeli v družini (61,6%), nekaj več kot tretjina pa zunaj družine (38,4%). Žrtve, ki so bile deležne materine opore in pomoči, so potrebovale okrog 9 mesecev, da so razkrile zlorabo, tiste, ki podpore matere niso bile deležne, pa so imele večje težave in so o zlorabi spregovorile šele po nekaj letih (M=6,9 leta). Zaključek: Za deklico, ki je žrtev spolne zlorabe, je izrednega pomena, da v materi prepozna zaupanja vredno osebo. Posebno, če se zloraba pojavi v družini, lahko materina podpora pripomore k prekinitvi zlorabe, omili njene travmatske učinke in zmanjša njene dolgotrajne negativne posledice