Does emotional intelligence upon interaction with perceived stress, moderate burnout among resident doctors? A study from West Bengal, India

Abstract

Background: Burnout as a result of perceived stress is a jeopardizing condition for a medical graduate during the years of acquiring proficiency. Emotional intelligence (EI) is a coping strategy to handle vocational stress. The objectives of the study were to assess the effects of various predictors on resident doctors’ burnout and moderation effects of TEI by interaction with perceived stress.Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted from February to April 2016 among 61 postgraduate trainees and 54 internees/ house staff respectively over various departments of Bankura Sammilani Medical College and Hospital. Data were collected through a self-administered questionnaire for background characteristics and work-related variables. Cohen perceived stress scale, Trait EI questionnaire and Shirom-Melamed burnout questionnaire were applied for measuring perceived stress, EI, and burnout, respectively. Statistical analysis was done with of SPSS version 22.0, and for moderation analysis, Andrew F. Hyne’s SPSS macro was adopted. Nonparametric bootstrapping was done.Results: In binary logistic regression, residents’ burnout was found to have significant association to heavy duty load and negative life event in recent past. In moderation analysis, a significant interaction effect with coefficient=0.031 (p=0.002) indicating that the relationship between the perceived stress (PS) and burnout was moderated by TEI.Conclusions: TEI is an important moderator of stress and resultant burnout of resident doctors. Training of EI of these professionals might bring about better work performance, psychological adaptation and well-being of individuals and society as a whole.

Associations between shift work characteristics, shift work schedules, sleep and burnout in North American police officers: a cross-sectional study

“…Working ≥1 long shift per month and ≥4 long shifts per week were also associated with high EE and overall burnout, but the risk conferred by other shift frequencies (ie, >0 to <2, 2 to <4 long shifts per week) was less consistent for these aspects of burnout. Working ≥48 hours per week was associated with reduced odds of low PA in police, which contrasts research in physicians using a similar definition of weekly work hours,22 as well as a prior study in UK police that defined long work weeks using a slightly higher threshold (≥49 hours per week) 27. Long work weeks and night shifts (1–4 per week) were the only shift characteristics in this study associated with reduced odds of low PA.…”

“…Total work hours across the month were recorded using a validated questionnaire,20 with those recording ≥48 hours per week considered to be working long work weeks. This categorisation was based on prior benchmarking literature in the USA which defines long work weeks as 48 or more hours per week21 and research which has shown this cut-off to be associated with burnout 22. Participants also recorded if they completed mandatory and/or voluntary overtime over the last 4 weeks and the total number of hours they slept each week for the previous 4 weeks.…”

A Square Deal to clear the Air: Managing the Difficult Patient Encounters

“…experience interactions with "difficult patients" within their role as learners and within the clinical learning environment (Swami, Mathur, and Pushp, 2013). Most of the available literature have focused on patient and physicians characteristics during difficult encounters but there is less written about the increase prevalence of this situation in the young doctors, outcomes of difficult encounters and how physicians actually manage difficult patients Instead, management advice is given anecdotally or from an educational or psychological perspective without any scientific evidence generally in the essays form usually based upon the expert opinion or personal experience of author.…”