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On 10 May 2023, the lecture “Professional Burnout in Health Care Workers” was given at Vilnius University Faculty of Medicine by Professor Igor Zavgorodnii from Kharkiv National Medical University (Ukraine). During the lecture, the professor introduced the phenomena of professional burnout or burnout syndrome and shared the findings of the joint research study that was implemented within the framework of a scientific agreement between Ukraine and Germany: cooperation between Kharkiv National Medical University, Kharkiv National University of Radio Electronics, and Otto von Guericke University of Magdeburg (Germany).

Developing a methodological approach to the study of professional burnout

“Work that previously caused interest no longer does, new achievements don’t make you happy, colleagues annoy you, and difficult tasks cause fear—these are the signs of burnout syndrome. It is a serious disease that no one is immune to today,” Professor Zavgorodnii said at the beginning of his lecture. As he noted, in the types of professions that are based on person-to-person interaction, the additional psychological burden increases chances for new emotional stress. “Ultimately, the intense communication with the client or patient and constant provision of professional assistance creates a state of tension that changes the psychophysiological parameters of the body,” he stated.

According to the professor, employee burnout statistics indicate that chronic stress at work often results in mental health problems, regardless of the job type. He shared some statistics and facts from open-source data: “Twenty-one per cent of employees feel burned out every day. Sixty per cent of emergency medicine physicians feel burned out. One percent have attempted suicide. Twenty-nine per cent of remote workers feel burned out. Twelve per cent of nurses feel burned out. Working more than 50 hours a week increases the risk of burnout. Employees are 17 times less likely to develop serious burnout symptoms when they have enough time to complete their tasks.”

Referring to the World Health Organization, the professor excluded some characteristics from professional burnout: energy depletion or exhaustion, increased mental distance from one’s job, and negativity or cynicism related to one’s job. He mentioned two pioneers in the field of the professional burnout study: Herbert J. Freudenberger, a German-born American psychologist, and Christina Maslach, professor emeritus of psychology and a core researcher at the Healthy Workplaces Center at the University of California (Berkeley). 

The professor noted that the Maslach Burnout Inventory, which includes such key components of professional burnout as exhaustion, depersonalization, and diminished personal accomplishments, was the most important questionnaire used to diagnose professional burnout in the joint research study, though many other questionnaires are also widely used by European researchers. “The aim of the study is to develop a methodological approach to the establishment of a pre-pathology group for the development of professional burnout. Mathematical processing was performed using the principal component analysis,” the professor explained. 

20230516 IgorProf. Igor Zavgorodnii, dr. Jelena Stanislavovienė / © MF archive

Grateful to colleagues from Kharkiv and Magdeburg

Professor Zavgorodnii concluded his lecture by stating that the proposed methodological (mathematical) approach makes it possible to purposefully work with the group of pre-pathology persons. As he noted, the establishment of early diagnostic criteria for the pre-pathological states of professional burnout syndrome in healthcare professions should be considered a necessary stage in the development of preventive measures, namely the optimisation of the labour process and the availability of psychological assistance for employees. 

The professor expressed his gratitude to the Faculty of Medicine of Vilnius University for the invitation to give a guest lecture, as well as to his colleagues from Kharkiv and Magdeburg: Olena Leonidivna Litovchenko, Ph.D., assistant in the Department of Hygiene and Ecology N°2 of Kharkiv National Medical University; Professor Valeriy Andriyovych Kapustnyk, M.D., the university rector; Irina Perova, Ph.D., from Kharkiv National University of Radio Electronics; and Professor Irina Böckelmann from the Department of Occupational Medicine at the Medical Faculty of the Otto von Guericke University of Magdeburg.