BURNOUT AS A CLINICAL ENTITY - ITS IMPORTANCE IN HEALTH-CARE WORKERS

Burnout, viewed as the exhaustion of physical or emotional strength as a result of prolonged stress or frustration, was added to the mental health lexicon in the 1970s, and has been detected in a wide variety o f health care providers. A study of 600 American workers indicated tha t burnout resulted in lowered production, and increases in absenteeism , health care costs, and personnel turnover. Many employees are vulner able, particularly as the American job scene changes through industria l downsizing, corporate buyouts and mergers, and lengthened work time. Burnout produces both physical and behavioural changes, in some insta nces leading to chemical abuse. The health professionals at risk inclu de physicians, nurses, social workers, dentists, care providers in onc ology and AIDS-patient care personnel, emergency service staff members , mental health workers, and speech and language pathologists, among o thers. Early identification of this emotional slippage is needed to pr event the depersonalization of the provider-patient relationship. Prev ention and treatment are essentially parallel efforts, including great er job control by the individual worker, group meetings, better up-and -down communication, more recognition of individual worth, job redesig n, flexible work hours, full orientation to job requirements, availabl e.employee assistance programmes, and adjuvant activity. Burnout is a health care professional's occupational disease which must be recogniz ed early and treated.