The cost of helping : the relationship between self-compassion and burnout among healthcare professionals in Lebanon.

Abstract

Due to the nature of their occupation, healthcare professionals, nurses, physicians, and psychologists, are prone to experience burnout - a psychological syndrome resulting from chronic interpersonal stressors at work, and characterized by exhaustion, cynicism towards patients, and decreased quality of care (Maslach, Schaufeli, and Leiter, 2001). Although there are several individual differences, which impact the development of burnout, a new variable, self-compassion has recently been investigated. Self-compassion refers to the non-judgmental observation of one’s own pain and failure while understanding that they are part of being human (Neff, 2003b). This study aimed to understand the extent to which self-compassion can predict lower levels of burnout in this population We administered an online survey to a convenience sample of healthcare professionals working in two major Lebanese hospitals (N = 90), using psychometrically robust tools. Results indicated that our sample reports a high degree of burnout and average levels of self-compassion. High burnout levels were significantly associated with being female, working long hours, and having unhealthy eating habits. Importantly, self-compassion was found to significantly predict all components of burnout, above and beyond socio-demographic and occupational variables. These findings can help in designing possible future interventions that might help to deal with burnout at the workplace by incorporating self-compassion-related interventions.