MUCH has been said about the rate of burnout among medical staff and now University of Limerick researchers are asking medics working in University Hospital Limerick and other hospitals to help explore the worrying trend further.
The new EU research project is focused on understanding burnout and finding solutions for hospital-based doctors and nurses.
Professor Stephen Gallagher and Dr Trina Tamrakar are among a select group of experts participating in the KEEPCARING project.
The researchers are looking for nurses and doctors working in hospital groups, including University Hospital Limerick, to take a 12-minute survey on burnout.
Funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme, KEEPCARING is a four-year initiative aimed at transforming what is known about burnout in healthcare professionals, what contributes to it, how it affects them biologically, and finding ways to prevent it or reduce it – including the use of virtual reality and AI.
Launched by doctors themselves in response to the EU healthcare crisis, whereby recruiting and retaining healthcare staff is proving difficult Europe-wide, and with burnout in hospital staff a key factor in this, KEEPCARING’s mission is to find state-of-the-art solutions be it systemic, leadership, or individual level strategies to improve the health and wellbeing of medical staff.
Professor Gallagher said that “burnout is not only harmful for the health and wellbeing for our nurses and doctors, it is pervasive and is also associated with low job satisfaction and increased intention to quit”.
“As such, the team here in UL will be responsible for understanding how things like work stress, relationships with leadership, and systems contributes to burnout in both nurses and doctors.
“This information will then be used to inform the VR and AI solutions to help reduce the negative effects of burnout.”
Other factors such as gender, age, work context, years in service, working hours, and roles will be considered in understanding burnout levels, with a special focus being placed on roles and surgical specialities in the hospital setting.
Hospital-based nurses or doctors are asked to log on to KEEPCARING.eu for more information and to take part.
