IS THE BURNOUT SYNDROME COMMON AMONGST MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS

Abstract Chronic occupational stress can lead to a condition called burnout or burnout syndrome. Symptoms include a feeling of emotional exhaustion, decreased sensitivity to people in the workplace, and disappointment with one's own achievements at work. Burnout has been studied since the 1970s. Initially, the concept was used in connection with the negative consequences of professional overload, forming three large groups of symptoms: emotional exhaustion, internal distancing, and reduced achievements. The professions that are most vulnerable include doctors, police officers, teachers, prison staff, pilots, air traffic controllers, and miners. At a later stage, people began to talk about stress syndrome in sociological professions that somehow support people in the service sector. The syndrome is described as "a set of psychological, psychiatric, and somatic symptoms reflected in significant social interactions with a negative effect and developing overall functioning stress. Professionally burned-out individuals spent more and more time at work, managing to get less and less quality work done. Their time passed by, simply “hanging around,” without doing anything useful. Their social lives also suffered because the daily overtime work negatively affected their relationships with other people outside of work.