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18PROFESSIONAL BURNOUT: FROM THE HISTORY OF THE PROBLEM TO MODERN COMPREHENSION
The article is focused on the history of genesis of the term "professional burnout" and on the causes of its appearance in the scientific literature. The materials of the article substantiate the idea that professional burnout is the factor of riskogeneity in the pedagogical process in the higher medical school.
Keywords
educational risks, education, emotional burnout, professional burnout, medical university
AUTHORS
Natalya A. Kloktunova
Candidate of Sciences in Sociology, Head of Department of Pedagogy, Education Technologies and Professional Communication, Saratov State Medical University n.a. V.I. Razumovsky, Saratov 112, st. Big Cossack, Saratov, 410012, Russia pedagog.sgmu@mail.ru
Irina V. Sheshneva
Candidate of Sciences in Pedagogy, Associate Professor of Department of Pedagogy, Education Technologies and Professional Communication, Saratov State Medical University n.a. V.I. Razumovsky, Saratov 112, st. Big Cossack, Saratov, 410012, Russia irina0806@mail.ru
Tatyana V. Rodionova
Senior Teacher of Foreign Languages' Department, Saratov State Medical University n.a. V.I. Razumovsky, Saratov 112, st. Big Cossack, Saratov, 410012, Russia rodionova.tvsar@yandex.ru
Inna Yu. Yurova Candidate of Sciences in Sociology, Senior Teacher of Foreign Languages' Department, Saratov State Medical University n.a. V.I. Razumovsky, Saratov 112, st. Big Cossack, Saratov, 410012, Russia innessa2010@gmail.com
1. Introduction
In modern fast-racing world characterized by continuous changes in economic and social-political situation, "information explosion", steady growth of nervous exhaustion and psychic tension due to a sharp increase of business competition both between organizations and ordinary personnel, the most urgent problem appears to be the problem
of controlling "occupational" or the so-called "professional" stresses. At this background there has arisen an even more urgent problem of emotional burnout of the workers.
The urgency of the problem may be explained by the fact that emotional burnout is a global obstacle on the way of gaining professionalism. According to the data concerning investigation of emotional burnout syndrome (EBS), 25% of people have been suffering from the burnout at least once in their life. There have been established certain occupations in which a high likelihood for workers to develop the burnout is from 30% to 90%. As a rule, these include specialists engaged in the sphere dealing with contacts between human beings (the "man-man" sphere): doctors, teachers, social workers, etc.
During 70-s of the previous century physicians noted this new "threat" to be hanging over the specialists engaged predominantly in the sphere of service, where contact with people is a necessary prerequisite of their professional activity. They also proved the direct dependence between professional stresses, communication with an enormous number of people and overstrain during work (Chernyshkova, 2015, 2016, 2017). This "threat" was given a medical term "chronic fatigue syndrome".
2. Materials and Methods
The works of H. Freudenberger, C. Maslach, S. Jackson, A. Paines, B. Perlman and E. Hartman, K. Kondo were used as the base for this research. The main method used in the work is the analysis of thematic literature.
3. Results
The phenomenon of emotional burnout was first described by an Americal psychiatrist Herbert Freudenberger in 1974. This phenomenon served to describe the emotional and psychological condition of psychicaly healthy people who were in a close and continuous contact with their clients, patients in distinctly emotional atmosphere while rendering professional aid. H. Freudenberger observed people who worked with complete self-return and enormous enthusiasm in public organizations, and first of all in his clinic of alternative medicine. Several months after that manner of work the majority of the personnel were noted to develop such features as emotional devastation, irritability, apathy, fatigue and aloofness. H. Freudenberger termed initial enthusiasm and passion of his workers as "emotional burning", and the condition of their emotional devastation and fatigue - an "emotional burnout". He defined "professional burnout", or "emotional burnout" as the condition of utter exhaustion with the sense of one's own helplessness (Freudenberger, 1974).
Works of C. Maslach, S. Jackson, A. Paines made a significant contribution to investigation of the emotional burnout syndrome. In 1976 Cristine Maslach, an Americal psychologist, introduced a more precise definition of emotional burnout syndrome (EBS). She defined EBS as "the syndrome of emotional and physical exhaustion including the development of a negative self-evaluation, a negative attitude to the work, loss of understanding and sympathy for patients and clients" (Maslach, 1976). Later, in 1981, together with S. Jackson, she introduced the definition of "emotional burnout" and defined the term as the syndrome of emotional exhaustion and cynicism, in most cases manifesting in specialists working with people, which served as the source of formation and development of an unfavorable attitude to their clients and patients. In one of her works Cristine Maslach reported that specialists engaged in the sphere of service, by specificity of their profession, had to spend much time in close communication with surrounding people - with both colleagues and clients (Burisch, 1993).
The notion "professional burnout" was further on spelled out and the syndromes of the disease were determined. B. Perlman and E. Hartman analyzed numerous definitions of the notion "burnout" and put forward three basic indices: 1) emotional and/or physical exhaustion; 2) depersonalization; and 3) reduced working productivity (Perlman, 1982). A. Laengle defines the syndrome of emotional burnout as a variety of depression which occurs without organic disturbances but with gradual loss of life values (Laengle, 2008). For the sake of most noble purposes (such as to help people, to be in due time with the work, to accomplish the wotk with the maximum quality), there is unconsciously developed poverty in relations not only when communicating with other people but also in the internal emotional background.
A. Paines interpreted and developed the conception of burnout from a different viewpoint. He defined the phenomenon of burnout as gradual and stage-by-stage disappointment in searching the heart of life manifesting in emotional, psychological and physical exhaustion (Paines, 1982). Such an interpretation of the emotional burnout syndrome appears to be characteristic for representatives of any type of professional activities.
K. Kondo reports that there are two categories of people who are at a particularly high risk of being burnt out: those who aggressively and violently solve stressful situations, and those whose work takes all their time, i.e. those people who are usually called "work-addicts" (Kondo, 2001).
Russian scientists also made a significant contribution to investigation of professional burnout syndrome. This phenomenon was especially widely studied and developed in the second half of 90-s by psychologists (V.V. Bojko, T.V. Bolshakova, A.A. Rukavishnikova, O.V. Krapivina, N.E. Vodopjanova, E.S. Starchenkova, etc.), pedagogues (A.A. Rean, O.A. Baronina, L.M. Mitina, T.I. Ronginskaya, etc.), physicians (G.S. Abramova, Yu.A. Yudchits, etc.). In the works of E.I. Lozinskaya "the syndrome of emotional overburn" is regarded from the viewpoint of the stress theory. The authors distinguish three phases with characteristic symptoms: 1) the phase of tension (during which there are developed the sense of alarm, decrease of the mood and general emotional background); 2) the phase of resistance (during which the person, realizing his tension, tries to avoid the emotional factor by means of complete or partial limitation of his emotional reaction); 3) the phase of exhaustion (during which there occurs the fall-down of general emotional tone, anf the individual inevitably manifests his emotional indifference and personal aloofness (Luk'janov, 2007).
For almost forty years of investigation of the phenomenon of emotional exhaustion associated with professional activities, this notion was given a number of various names: "emotional burnout", "professional burnout", "emotional burn-down", "emotional burn-over", "emotional burnout syndrome"; all of them, however, do not change the essence of this phenomenon but detail and develop it.
At present the syndrome of emotional burnout is conventionally referred to the states of pre-disease, and this phenomenon has been enrolled into the International Classification of Diseases (issue Z 73 - "Stress associated with difficulties in normal life style maitenance"). According to the World Health Organization, emotional burnout is defined as emotional and motivation exhaustion characterized by fatigue, insomnia, impairment of productivity in professional activities, as well as by susceptibility to somatic diseases.
The syndrome of emotional burnout produces a negative effect on psychic health of teachers and on the efficiency of their professional activities (Kloktunova, 2018). This is associated with a number of factors revealed during the investigation carried out at the department of pedagogy, educational technologies and professional communication on the basis of the Institute of supplementary training at SSMU. The labor of the majority of teachers is very tense emotionally: most of them combine their teaching activities with methodical, organizational-supervising, research and/or curative work. High social
responsibility and self-demand at the background of informational overload together with deficiency of time required for comprehension and response create additional psychological difficulties typical for higher school teachers. Disproportion between scientific organization of labor and the regimen of activity, total overloading and "communication satiety" - all these factors cause stable conditions for occurrence of professional burnout syndrome. The sense of professional incompetence and the feeling of loss of their own efficiency which gradually develop in teachers, produce an extremely negative effect on their entire pedagogical activity, prevent bringing up in students love and respect to gaining knowledge in general, and to medical activities in particular (Sheshneva, 2003). All the above mentioned makes it possible to refer the syndrome of professional burnout to the factors of riskogeneity in the pedagogical process.
The problems which still remain to be investigated include peculiarities of the phenomenon of professional burnout syndrome in various age and sex groups of higher school teachers, as well as its prevention and control (Barsukova, 2018).
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