Wellbeing, burnout, and safe practice among healthcare professionals : predictive influences of mindfulness, values, and self-compassion

Prudenzi, Arianna and D. Graham, Christopher and Flaxman, Paul E. and O’Connor, Daryl B. (2022) Wellbeing, burnout, and safe practice among healthcare professionals : predictive influences of mindfulness, values, and self-compassion. Psychology, Health and Medicine, 27 (5). pp. 1130-1143. ISSN 1354-8506 (https://doi.org/10.1080/13548506.2021.1898651)

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Abstract

Poor wellbeing and burnout are significant issues among health-care professionals (HCPs) and may contribute to unsafe practice. In this exploratory study, we aimed to: provide the first investigation of the combined and unique influences of these psychological factors in predicting safe practice; confirm the role played by mindfulness in relation to wellbeing, burnout and safe practice; and investigate whether values and self-compassion predict additional variability above and beyond mindfulness skills. Ninety-eight NHS staff completed measures of wellbeing, burnout, perceived safety of practice, mindfulness, values and self-compassion. Practitioners with higher perceived safety of practice reported higher levels of mindfulness, but not values or self-compassion, particularly lower experiential avoidance and nonjudgmental attitude toward difficult thoughts. Mindfulness explained significant variability in psychological distress (20%), emotional exhaustion (8%), cognitive weariness (10%), patient safety related to oneself (7%), and related to work (8%). Values (obstruction) added unique variance for psychological distress (12%) and physical fatigue (10%). Moreover, self-compassion explained a small yet significant portion of variability in emotional exhaustion. These preliminary findings suggest that mindfulness processes may be associated with perceived safety of practice. The results also indicate that mindfulness-based interventions for HCPs may benefit from the inclusion of values-based action components and self-compassion practices.

ORCID iDs

Prudenzi, Arianna, D. Graham, Christopher ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8456-9154, Flaxman, Paul E. and O’Connor, Daryl B.;
  • Item type:Article
    ID code:84670
    Dates:
    Date
    Event
    1 May 2022
    Published
    15 April 2021
    Published Online
    1 March 2021
    Accepted
    Subjects:Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > Psychology
    Department:UNSPECIFIED
    Depositing user: Pure Administrator
    Date deposited:13 Mar 2023 13:51
    Last modified:11 Nov 2024 13:50
    URI:https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/84670
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