Rola przywództwa w rozwiązywaniu problemu wypalenia zawodowego w placówce medycznej

Abstract

Burnout in a medical institution, especially in the frontline of medical service and following the difficult time of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, is an urgent challenge that leaders need to understand and address directly.

The aims of the article are: 1. getting to know the causes of fatigue and burnout as well as the impact they have on a person; 2. defining the role of leadership in creating an organizational culture based on team involvement and promoting the well-being of employees in a medical institution; 3. proposing a strategy for building an atmosphere of mutual support as well as preventing fatigue and burnout.

The research method was the review and analysis of professional literature, including articles in international journals and training materials.

There are many definitions of the phenomenon of burnout in the literature on the subject. It is a syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a lowered sense of personal achievement. In the case of healthcare professionals, the depersonalization of patients may initially be expressed in a tendency to avoid patients and shorten the time spent with them.
Primary factors influencing the occurrence of burnout are: lack of fairness and mutual respect, unmanageable workloads, lack of role clarity, poor communication or support from the manager, unreasonable time pressures and poor workflows, lack of meaningful connections. Factors that emerged during the pandemic are: growing backlogs, expectations to work outside areas of expertise, and the so-called emotional toll.

The key role of leaders is to create a culture of respect and continuous improvement that integrates team members and helps them support one another in the most difficult moments of their professional work. It is extremely important to implement strategies which promote building and maintaining employees’ well-being and resilience to stress. These strategies should be individually developed by people who experience burnout. In medical teams, it is worth considering what the medical staff owes to patients and reassessing their values, building their hierarchy, and rethinking what is real and valuable in life. In order to reach such important conclusions, it is often necessary to discuss difficult and painful matters.