The Effect of Too Much Caring: A Preliminary Study.

Area of Science:

• Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
• Psychiatry
• Occupational Health

Background:

• Burnout and psychiatric morbidity are significant concerns in healthcare professions.
• Maxillofacial prosthetic clinics present unique stressors due to the nature of patient care, particularly with cancer patients.
• Understanding these impacts is crucial for resident and specialist well-being.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess burnout and psychiatric morbidity in prosthodontic residents and prosthodontists.
• To compare these outcomes between clinicians treating cancer patients and those not treating cancer patients.
• To identify potential work-related stressors in maxillofacial prosthetics.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) to evaluate emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment.
• Employed the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) to screen for psychiatric morbidity.
• Compared a group of cancer clinicians (n=6) with non-cancer clinicians (n=4) within a maxillofacial prosthetic setting.

Main Results:

• No significant differences in psychiatric morbidity (GHQ-12) were found between cancer and non-cancer clinicians (P = .89).
• Cancer clinicians exhibited higher, though not statistically significant, levels of emotional exhaustion (P = .36) and depersonalization (P = .41) with moderate effect sizes.
• Both groups reported moderate burnout, with non-cancer clinicians scoring higher on personal accomplishment.

Conclusions:

• Clinicians in this study experienced notable stress.
• Cancer clinicians reported greater stress, evidenced by moderate effect sizes in exhaustion and depersonalization.
• Further investigation is warranted to address burnout and support clinicians in maxillofacial prosthetics.