Organizational and ergonomic determinants of emotional exhaustion in functional diagnostics specialists: empirical justification of labor organization requirements

The presented work is devoted to the study of emotional exhaustion in functional diagnostics physicians in the context of organizational and ergonomic working conditions. The object of the research is emotional exhaustion as a basic component of professional burnout syndrome. The author examines in detail the specificity of the work of this professional group, which includes working in darkened rooms, forced static posture, high patient flow, and lack of micropauses. Special attention is paid to the fact that these factors have not yet been the subject of separate quantitative analysis. The paper analyzes the relationship between working conditions and the severity of emotional exhaustion, and substantiates the need to revise existing workload standards. The key emphasis is placed on the fact that emotional exhaustion in this category of specialists has not only a psychological, but also a pronounced organizational and environmental nature. A total of 228 functional diagnostics physicians were examined. The MBI questionnaire adapted by N.E. Vodopyanova, an author-developed questionnaire of somatic and sensory symptoms, and a brief questionnaire of organizational characteristics were used. Dispersion, correlation, and multiple regression analyses were applied. The scientific novelty of this study lies in the fact that it is the first to quantitatively assess the contribution of organizational factors to the development of emotional exhaustion in functional diagnostic physicians, as well as to compare objective workload parameters with the severity of sensory-muscular complaints. The relationship between the number of studies and the level of exhaustion is shown to be linear. The authors' key findings are as follows: with a workload of over 20 studies per day, the average exhaustion score reaches 32.1 ± 8.9, compared to 21.4 ± 8.7 with a workload of up to 10 studies. Continuous work without a microbreak for more than 60 minutes was found to increase exhaustion by 6.8 points. The strongest predictors were weekly workload (β = 0.31) and the duration of uninterrupted visual work (β = 0.27). Based on the data obtained, recommendations for optimizing the work regime were substantiated: no more than 15 examinations per shift, a mandatory five-minute break after each hour of work, and limiting continuous visual load to 45–50 minutes. These recommendations can be taken into account when developing local regulations for medical organizations.