Burnout Syndrome as an instability Indicator of professional Meaningfulness with a special Focus on the Profession of general Practitioners for Adults in the postmodern and post-COVID Era

Burnout syndrome (WHO, 2019), especially in the postCOVID era, seems like a pandemic of the 21st century. Burnout is often the result of prolonged stress in the workplace (Butz et al., 2024). Identifying the syndrome itself and pointing out the importance of its causes and ways to overcome it is essential in many professions. It mainly affects the so-called helping professions, the group in which the medical profession and doctors belong. There is a crisis in the health sector (in the Slovak Republic), but little attention is paid to the instability of the medical profession. However, if there is a crisis of general values within our postmodern society, which would be supported to a large extent by the post-COVID era,then the primary focus of the medical profession – to help and heal, which means to give the whole of oneself for the good of others – is being questioned as a value. At the same time, doctors are not satisfied with their professional fulfillment. For the stabilization of the medical profession, it would certainly be helpful to rediscover the profession of a doctor as a person who performs an art instead of doing a craft, and as one who practises his/her profession instead of doing business (Stavdal, 2023). In addition, the rediscovery and subsequent development of a gratitude culture in the workplace could be a proper substitution for the culture of careerism and rivalry. Among physicians, general practitioners for adults represent one of the most endangered groups for burnout (Tidy, 2023). This paper deals with the burnout syndrome etiology, which is based on the essence of human beings, meaning a human-being focused on self-transcendence and on creating values. Therefore, the causes of burnout syndrome cannot only be narrowed down to the amount of work. In comparison to nonpost-communist countries, building a company philosophy within clinics is an important element in the still recently established institution of GP clinics for adults as companies. It is based on the principal question: Why is working in a GP clinic for adults important? This question is legitimate not only for workers (healthcare workers), but also for clients – patients. The answer to this question should be based on values. The paper also analyses symptoms, such as anticipatory anxiety, loss of creativity, loss of authenticity and the ability to relax, as well as resignation to innovation and inefficient functioning of clinics consisting of just one doctor and one nurse. These symptoms are generally mentioned less frequently among both the lay public and professionals. However, they seem to be essential indicators of burnout syndrome. For this reason, their proper recognition is also very important in solving the problem of burnout. Last but not least, we identify the uncertainty regarding the profession of a doctor in the framework of postmodern instability. We assume that the anchoring of the position of a doctor as the bearer of the profession, which has a self-transcending and unquestionably altruistic dimension, is the way to find professional stability as a prerequisite for a sense of fulfillment. Feeling the satisfaction from job fulfillment is a protective factor against burnout.