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The relationship between psychological resilience and burnout in Irish doctors

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Irish Journal of Medical Science (1971 -) Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background

There has been a considerable amount of research focused upon assessing doctor burnout. However, psychological resilience (PR) has been examined far less frequently.

Aims

To examine the relationship between PR and burnout in Irish doctors in order to identify how PR can be improved—with a particular focus on how doctors can be empowered to strengthen their PR.

Method

The ResMed PR survey and the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS) were distributed to doctors from an Irish teaching hospital.

Results

A total of 322 completed online and paper surveys were received. Response rate for the paper surveys was 42.0% (168/400). Depersonalisation and personal accomplishment were significant predicators of job gratification (taking satisfaction from the job of a physician). Emotional exhaustion and personal accomplishment were significant predicators of protective attitudes (attitudes that promote or sustain PR; e.g. not taking things personally). Being a man was more positively related to protective attitudes than being a woman. Emotional exhaustion and personal accomplishment were significant predicators of protective practices (approaches to building/maintaining resilience; e.g. good time management).

Conclusions

The research reported in this paper provides insights in to how healthcare leaders could empower frontline doctors to change how they work in order to allow them to improve their psychological resilience and help them to thrive, rather than just survive.

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Funding

This research was partially supported by a grant from the Health Services Executive National Doctor Training and Planning.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Discipline of General Practice, School of Medicine, National University of Ireland, Galway, 1 Distillery Rd, Galway, Co., Galway, Ireland

    Paul O’Connor & Emily O’Dowd

  2. Irish Centre for Applied Patient Safety and Simulation, University Road, Galway, Ireland

    Paul O’Connor, Sinéad Lydon, Emily O’Dowd & Dara Byrne

  3. School of Medicine, National University of Ireland, Galway, Galway, Ireland

    Sinéad Lydon & Dara Byrne

Authors
  1. Paul O’Connor
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  2. Sinéad Lydon
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  3. Emily O’Dowd
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  4. Dara Byrne
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Paul O’Connor.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

Ethical approval was obtained from the ethics board of the hospital in which the data was collected.

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Informed consent was obtained from all participants.

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O’Connor, P., Lydon, S., O’Dowd, E. et al. The relationship between psychological resilience and burnout in Irish doctors. Ir J Med Sci 190, 1219–1224 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11845-020-02424-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11845-020-02424-y

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