1. Burnout in Dentists and Dental Students
Aulak DS1, Singh P2, Aulak M3, Quinn BFA4 Au
lak DS1, Singh P2
1 & 4 School of Dentistry, King’s College London Dental Institute, London, United Kingdom 2 School of Medicine, King’s College London Medical School, London, United Kingdom 3 School of Biomedical and Health Sciences, Kingston University, London, United Kingdom , Aulak M3, Quinn BFA
41st Annual Meeting Communication and Interaction in Dentistry Szeged, Hungary August 2015
Aims
Burnout, a marker of professional distress is prevalent in demanding careers such as dentistry. Burnout is a state of mental and physical exhaustion which impacts adversely on the individual to perform their role adequately. We aimed to identify the most significant factors associated with burnout in dentists/dental students in the published literature.
Materials and Methods
A literature review was conducted using MEDLINE, EMBASE and HMIC electronic databases to source literature on the factors associated with burnout in dentists. The search string included key words e.g. burnout, dentist, factors. The following exclusion criteria were applied; no abstract for preliminary review; unavailable in English language; inaccessible through King’s College London online subscriptions and not exclusively based on dentists and/or dental students. The papers were appraised using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) to identify the most significant factors associated with burnout in the dental profession.
Results
From 115 studies identified by the search string, thirty-three papers were deemed to be relevant for review.
The most prevalent and significant factors associated with burnout were: younger age, male gender, student status, high job-strain/working hours, those enrolled in clinical degree programmes and certain personality types.
However, only a limited amount of literature explored the directional relationship between these factors and burnout.
Support High Risk
Screening
Reduced Burnout
BURNOUT
Young Age
Students
Male
High Work Strain
Personality
FIGURE 1: Factors associated with Burnout
FIGURE 2: Authors’ proposed combat strategies
Conclusion
Burnout should be considered a multifactorial phenomenon that can develop early in a dental career. Screening programmes and coping strategies should be implemented in Dental Schools to identify and support individuals at risk. The consequences of burnout may lead to a poor standard of patient care and health implications for the affected practitioners. It is therefore a societal and professional imperative to address the issues of burnout at the onset of professional education.