Occupational stress, professional burnout and job satisfaction among psychiatrists

Professionals caring for long-term and seriously ill patients frequently experience distressing emotional situations and profound suffering. These emotions may include the need to “rescue” patients, sense of failure and frustration when illness progresses, feelings of powerlessness against illness and its associated losses, grief, fear of becoming ill oneself, and a desire to remain emotionally distant from and/or avoid patients to escape these feelings. Although common in everyday clinical practice, these emotions often affect both the quality of medical care physicians provide and their own well-being.This Chapter examines external sources of stress that impact psychiatrists’ professional lives (with a specific emphasis on occupational stressors) and discusses the negative outcomes of chronic exposure to external job-related stressors, i.e. professional burnout and low job satisfaction. Lastly, it outlines effective forms of intervention for preventing and/or reducing burnout and increasing job satisfaction in psychiatrists.