Palliative care and burnout: Residents' psychological distress

Introduction. - Nearly 70% of people at the end of life die in hospital. Caregivers, on the front line, are therefore exposed to particularly difficult emotional situations and can therefore develop symptoms, including burn-out syndrome. This research is therefore interested in the impact of end-of-life care in palliative care through the study of burnout and the experiences of caregivers. Method. - We conducted a cross-sectional study of 149 residents working in public hospitals in the West of France. They completed a file with the Maslach Burnout Scale and questions about their experiences of palliative care. The data were processed using Statview(C) and content analysis. Results. - The results showed low levels of burnout. Stressful relationships with patients increased depersonalization, institutional problems increased burnout, and difficulties in differentiating between professional and personal life increased emotional exhaustion. On a subjective level, the interns report difficulties and questions relating to the morbidity and ethics of the situations encountered. Discussion. - These results will help us to better conceptualize the impact of palliative care interns' health that is not expressed in our sample by burnout. We discuss the implications of this research and propose recommendations to improve care and management of interns. (C) 2020 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.