Open Access“What is worse than death?”: experience of critical events among physicians
Author(s) -
Dalia Antinienė,
Žydrūnė Kaklauskaitė
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
baltic journal of sport and health sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2538-8347
pISSN - 2351-6496
DOI - 10.33607/bjshs.v4i111.672
Subject(s) - burnout , thematic analysis , emotional exhaustion , psychology , qualitative research , critical incident technique , social psychology , clinical psychology , social science , marketing , sociology , business
Background. It is noticeable that doctors’ avoidant behavior while dealing with emotional consequences ofcritical events not only lowers physician’s quality of sleep (Kahn, Sheppes, & Sadeh, 2013), brings them lesssatisfaction with the results of their work (Gleichgerrcht & Decety, 2013), but also worsens medical care as theyprovide poorer services related to the patient (Austin Saylor, & Finley, 2017; Meier, Back, & Morrison, 2001). Thelack of scientific publications shows that this topic is underresearched and relevant. The purpose of the study is toreveal physicians’ experience of critical events.Methods. Five practicing physicians of anesthesiology-reanimatology and surgery participated in the qualitativepart of the research. The data was collected using semi-structured interview and processed using inductive thematicBraun & Clarke (2006) analysis.Results. Qualitative analysis revealed the complicated experiences in a physician’s workplace, which doctorsdescribed as: taking responsibilities in the presence of a patient’s death, the risk of burnout and negative emotionsexperienced after a critical event. The analysis also emerged techniques used in dealing with emotions after criticalevents and consequences of the latter in one’s personal life.Conclusions. The study revealed that physicians in their work environment come across difficulties such asrisk of burnout, balancing between formal and informal communication with patients and emotional strain which iscaused by facing a patient’s death. Doctors tend to cope with negative emotions that emerge during critical eventsusing various methods, but the most elucidated technique was the avoidance to deal with emotions. Analysis alsorevealed that experiences, gained through medics’ work, modify their attitude towards life and death and change theemotional connection between a physician and his relatives.