Causes of burnout syndrome and coping strategies among high dependency unit nurses of an institution in the greater Accra region of Ghana

Abstract

Social changes over the last decades have led to changes at the workplace. This has led to physical and emotional exhaustion among workers resulting in excessive accumulation of workload and high burnout levels (Paiva et al., 2016). High burnout directly affects the physiological stability of individuals pre-disposing them to cardiovascular diseases, psychiatric disorders and gastrointestinal disorders (Paiva et al., 2016). The term "burnout" was coined by Freudenberger in 1974 to describe workers' reactions to the chronic stress commonly found in occupations involving numerous interpersonal interactions (Doulougeri et al., 2016). The document added that burnout is a psychological syndrome that involves a prolonged response to chronic emotional and interpersonal stressors. In addition, burnout syndrome refers to a situation in which workers appear disconnected from their job and everything seems to be senseless (Lorenz et al., 2010). Literally, this implies that the worker loses the sense of relationship to work.Burnout is a syndrome comprises of three dimensions; the first of which is emotional exhaustion, which is when someone is "emotionally overextended and exhausted by work." The second is depersonalization, which is categorised by "unfeeling and impersonal response towards recipients of one's care or service" and lastly low personal achievement, which is when people have "feelings

Occupational health hazards among healthcare providers and ancillary staff in Ghana: a scoping review

“…99 A problem-focused coping strategy, emotional support from family/friends as a coping strategy, using humour and listening to music were suggested as ways of preventing burnout. 100 …”

“…General burnout was reported from a range of 9.9% to 47.0% 95–98. Emotional burnout was reported from a minimum of 10.8% to a maximum of 62.5%,98–101 depersonalisation burnout was reported from 5.5% to 55.0%98–101 and personal achievement burnout was reported from 7.8% to 58.4% 98–101…”

“…Also, extra work hours and night shifts were positively associated with emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation 99. A problem-focused coping strategy, emotional support from family/friends as a coping strategy, using humour and listening to music were suggested as ways of preventing burnout 100…”

The Effort-Reward Model and Its Effect on Burnout Among Nurses in Ecuador

“…Several authors agree on the adverse job characteristics that are associated with burnout processes, especially in nursing employees ( Dall’Ora et al, 2020 ; Almodibeg and Smith, 2021 ; Boateng et al, 2021 ). In addition, the negative consequences that this exhaustion process has both on organizations, affecting the quality of the service they provide ( Leon-Perez et al, 2016 ), and on their lives, developing mental ( Ding et al, 2014 ) and psychosomatic disorders ( Guerrero-Barona et al, 2020 ).…”