BURNOUT SYNDROME AMONG HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS: IMPLICATIONS FOR HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS AND PATIENTS' SAFETY

Abstract

Health care delivery systems are desperately in need of quality improvement and cost efficiency despite increasing rates of chronic diseases, co – morbidities, overwhelming workload etc. globally. To navigate through these challenges, the health care professionals' daily activities are critical to improved quality of healthcare delivery. Regrettably, failure of the Health Insurance Schemes to meet its laudable objectives and poor funding of private and public health facilities have put enormous pressure on the health care professionals (HCPs); the result of which is burnout among the HCPs. The HCPs are severally faced with the challenge of empathising with patients who are unable to bear the cost of healthcare. Often, they pay the patient's healthcare bill from their pocket to provide emotional and physical care coupled with unconducive work environment and inadequate reward system. Furthermore, the HCPs are left with little or no input into the processes and systems in their work environment leading ultimately to poor health delivery and compromised patient safety. This article's aim is to examine burnout amongst HCPs and its implication for them and their patients. The HCP as a patient in need of health care, relationship between burnout and patient safety, risk factors, diagnosis and management approaches to burnout will be explored. The management approaches that will prevent or ameliorate burnout lies on employers and employees of health care delivery services, health care and allied institutions, health care policy makers and health system managers with health care quality improvement as the driving force. Finally, it must be noted that burnout syndrome is prevalent across all health care professionals and health care settings and have been shown to impair health care providers' capacity to ensure safe practices and detect emerging patient safety threats.