Abstract
Understanding burnout and its effects on employees’ performance and wellbeing has been studied since the 1980s. Monitoring burnout syndrome among health care professionals, such as physicians and nurses, is a critical task. On the one hand, medical staff has to be good at controlling their own emotions in confronting the health care challenges; on the other hand, they share similar emotional exhaustion, frustration, and feelings with their own patients. This can lead to medical diagnosis errors, weak performance, and lower quality of treatments. The main purpose of this study is to provide a concise literature review of research works on burnout syndrome among medical staff, including research methods, assessments, solutions, and best practices. No matter their field of expertise and responsibilities, burnout is a considerable common psychological syndrome among medical staff, ranging from 40 to 66%. The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) has been the most widely used questionnaire for data collection in the literature. Factors such as age, gender, marital status, and working conditions are identified as the most contributive parameters in the severity of burnout. Furthermore, studies have found that the degree of burnout can be reduced by under-taking self-improvement techniques such as meditation, development of communication skills, peer coaching, and doing art therapy. A considerable number of medical personnel are vulnerable to burnout syndrome in various degrees and forms. This common phenomenon threatens patients’ health and lives due to a reduction in medical care quality. This review covers the best practices for protecting and overcoming the hardnesses and challenges ahead of many health care professionals in their careers.
