An investigation into burnout among emergency care providers at a private ambulance emergency medical service in Gauteng

Abstract

Introduction Being a healthcare provider can be stressful as the job places demands on healthcare practitioners’ physical, emotional and mental functioning. The stress emergency care providers experience is unique and severe because they are exposed to an array of occupational stressors in their everyday lives. They deal with the very sick and dying, respond to emergencies that put their lives and the public’s lives at risk, they are even sometimes the victims of crime while they perform their duties. All of these occupational stressors create a risk of burnout for the emergency care provider. Emergency care providers who suffer from burnout are more likely to make clinical errors when treating patients and no longer have the ability to show empathy to their patients. Severe burnout may result in depression and suicidal behaviour. Aim of this study The aim of this study was to investigate the burnout of emergency care providers at a private ambulance emergency medical service in Gauteng to understand the extent and impact of burnout on emergency care providers. The objectives of the study were to assess burnout among emergency care providers using the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI), to establish whether the levels of burnout vary among different emergency care providers, and to establish if there is a relationship between burnout and the demographic variables gender, marital status and qualification. A further objective was to establish if there is a relationship between variables and distractor questions. Methodology This study was a quantitative study in the form of a cross-sectional survey utilizing the CBI as the burnout measurement tool. Results The findings of the study highlight that burnout is high among emergency care providers. Thirty percent of emergency care providers who participated in the study suffered from burnout. Most of the emergency care providers experienced higher levels of ‘personal burnout’ and ‘work burnout’ when compared with ‘burnout related to patient care’. Conclusion These findings are cause for concern, not only for the patients they attend to but also for the emergency care providers themselves.