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

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Title page
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HLSC122 Semester 1, 2018
Assessment 3: Critical appraisal of evidence
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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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