Effectiveness of Resilience and Mindfulness in Preventing Burnout among Human Service Professionals

This paper critically analyses the effectiveness of resilience and mindfulness in fighting with burnout and stresses caused by the employment status or emotional demands among human service professionals. The aim of the research is to improve the understanding of the association between the resilience, burnout and mindfulness among the human service professionals. The aim also is to find out the possible interventions for mitigating the burnout and the resilience among the human service professionals.

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Title page
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HLSC122 Semester 1, 2018
Assessment 3: Critical appraisal of evidence
Word count:
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Introduction:
Human service professionals normally consists of a diverse range of
professionals working in the field of social work, the care workers , counselors and
those working for the vulnerable groups of the society. They have to work with the
traumatized clients that can produce physical as well as emotional distress in the
patients.Resilience and mindfulness have been the found to protect the traumatized
individuals that can otherwise have negative consequences in the physical and the
mental wellbeing of the patients (Leonardi et al. 2015).It is the adaptation that a person
has to make in order to adapt to the life changing circumstances with floods of strong
emotions.
This paper critically analyses the effectiveness of resilience and mindfulness in fighting
with burnout and stresses caused by the employment status or emotional demands.
Body:
Full reference using APA format
Harker, R., Pidgeon, A. M., Klaassen, F., & King, S. (2016). Exploring resilience and
mindfulness as preventative factors for psychological distress burnout and
secondary traumatic stress among human service professionals. Work, 54(3),
631-637.
PART A
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Authorship
Rachel Harker, Department of Psychology, Bond University, Robina, QLD, Australia.
Aileen M. Pidgeon, Department of Psychology, Bond University, Robina, QLD,Australia
Frances Klaassen, Mercy Family Services, Toowoomba, QLD, Australia.
Steven King, Mercy Family Services, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
There were no conflict of interests among the authors.
Research questions
Do higher levels of resilience prevent burnout in health science students?
The human service professionals are the ones who cater to the vulnerable population of
the society by working in a wide array of spheres. Due to excessive work pressure or
different reasons they are often subjected to emotional distress, psychological distress,
secondary traumatic stress and burnout (Thieleman & Cacciatore, 2014). Resilience is
what that gives psychological strength to the people to cope up with adverse
environment and stress. It acts like a reservoir of strength that can be used in times of
wide degrees of setback. Other psychological factors has been found to be associated
with resilience. Feldman et al,(2012), has argued that an augmented level of
mindfulness can act as buffer against negative emotions and traumatic stresses. While
Scanlan, and Still (2013), have said that burnout is associated with age, especially
among the young psychologists, Thieleman and Cacciatore (2014), have argued that
aged females face more burnout than the younger ones. This inconsistent finding
provides the scope of this research.
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Study objective
The aim of the research is to improve the understanding of the association
between the resilience, burnout and mindfulness among the human service
professionals. The aim also is to find out the possible interventions for mitigating the
burnout and the resilience among the human service professionals.
Research design
A mixed method has been chose for this study to understand the relationship
between the resilience and less burnout in human service professionals.
According to () the application of then mixed method in research helps the researcher to
gain an in depth understanding of the concepts. One of the advantage is the possibility
of the triangulation. It allows the researcher to identify the different aspects of the
phenomenon.
Participants
133 human service professionals, working in the field of special work,
psychology, counseling and youth were chosen for the study, within the age range of
20-64 years. Number of female participants were 106 and 27 male participants.
Although the research design is appropriate but the sample population chosen for this
study is too low (Scanlan & Still, 2013). The sample size used for this study is less that
can give rise to selection bias and since the study is based on the self-reported data
there lies the chance of response bias. According to Greenhalgh (2016), furthermore
less sample size compromises the reliability of the study and can increase the margin of
the error.
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Research methods
The psychometrically sound questionnaires were made to be completed by the
participants for measuring the burnout, traumatic stress, psychological distress. General
Well-Being Schedule (GWBS) is an 18 item questionnaire used for measuring the
psychological stress and wellbeing (Pidgeon & Keye, 2014). ProQOL-5 is another 30
item scale that was being used for assessing the frustration, exhaustion and depression
among the professionals. The Resilience Factor Inventory (RFI), a 60-item scale has
been used for measuring the current level of resilience of an individual. The Frieburg
Mindfulness Inventory (FMI) a 14-item scale was used for measuring the mindfulness
(Polit & Beck, 2018). All the techniques are suitable for measuring the parameters of
burnout, psychological distress or traumatic stress in the individuals.
Outcome measures
The outcome measures of the study were age, gender, education, employment
status, resilience and mindfulness. The outcome measures showed a significant validity.
Hence the outcome measures were measurable and reliable (Melnyk &Fineout-
Overholt, 2015).
Ethical considerations
No information regarding the consideration of the ethics has been informed in
this article. Informed consent is essential before the conduction of a research.
Furthermore ethical approval might have been taken from a valid ethics organization.
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Results
As per the preliminary analysis, both age and mindfulness were considered as a
significant predictor of mindfulness, although age was not associated with burnout.
Higher levels of resilience have been found to be associated with lower levels of
burnout in individuals of all ages (Pidgeon & Keye, 2014). Supporting the previous
studies age was not found to be a significant predictor of burnout. However age was not
found to be associated with low levels of secondary traumatic stress, although both
mindfulness, resilience and age was found to be the predictor of psychological stress.
As per the findings it is evident that the scales used for predicting the predictors have
been correct and have been successful in measuring the contribution of resilience in
coping up with psychological stresses (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2015).
Strengths and limitations
The strength or the implication of this study is that it could measure the predictors
of the stress and burnout in individuals, which would further help the nurses to develop
strategies for developing intervention program for the concerned group of individuals.
The limitations of the current study are the presence of the selection bias as
participation of the respondents in the survey was not important and hence selection
bias might have been occurred. As the findings are mainly based on the self-reported
data as it can lead to social desirability bias. The limited interpretation of the data is also
one of the limitations across sectional correlational design.
PART B
Conclusion:
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In conclusion it can be said that the resilience is an important way to cope up
with the psychosocial stresses faced by the social care workers or the psychologists. As
per the study high levels of the resilience and mindfulness has been associated with the
low levels of burnout, psychological distress and secondary traumatic stress (Leonardi
et al., 2012). Increasing mindfulness has been found to be linked with different aspects
of the psychological wellbeing of the patient and negatively associated with the
secondary traumatic stress disorder. Resilience has been found to be associated with
the improvement of the emotion regulation skills and psychological flexibility. Hence
there should be programs that should focus on the resilience cultivation among the
human service professionals.
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References
Feldman, G., Dunn, E., Stemke, C., Bell, K., &Greeson, J. (2014). Mindfulness and
rumination as predictors of persistence with a distress tolerance task. Personality
and individual differences, 56, 154-158.
Greenhalgh, T., Bidewell, J., Crisp, E., Lambros, A., &Warland, J. (2016).
Understanding Research Methods for Evidence-Based Practice in Health
Leonardi, M., Pagani, M., Giovannetti, A. M., Raggi, A., &Sattin, D. (2013). Burnout in
healthcare professionals working with patients with disorders of consciousness.
Work, 45(3), 349-356.
Melnyk, B., &Fineout-Overholt, E. (2015). Evidence-based practice in nursing &
healthcare: A guide to best practice (3rd edn.). Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer.
Pidgeon, A. M., &Keye, M. (2014). Relationship between resilience, mindfulness, and
pyschological well-being in University students. International Journal of Liberal
Arts and Social Science, 2(5), 27.
Polit, D. F., & Beck, C. T. (2018). Nursing research: Generating and assessing evidence
for nursing practice. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Scanlan, J. N., & Still, M. (2013). Job satisfaction, burnout and turnover intention in
occupational therapists working in mental health. Australian occupational therapy
journal, 60(5), 310-318.
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Thieleman, K., & Cacciatore, J. (2014). Witness to suffering: Mindfulness and
compassion fatigue among traumatic bereavement volunteers and professionals.
Social Work, 59(1), 34-41.
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