ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE : It has been shown that stress in the workplace can contribute to the development or worsening of mental health conditions, as well as having a negative impact on personal relationships and life outside of work. Therefore, prolonged job stress can be damaging to an individual's mental health and wellbeing, potentially leading to burnout. There is limited research surrounding the wellbeing of nuclear medicine technologists practicing globally, and more specifically in Australia. This interpretative phenomenological study seeks the lived experience of nuclear medicine technologists within a large metropolitan city in Australia, how these experiences and COVID-19 has impacted their wellbeing. METHODS : Five participants were recruited who had greater than five years working experience as a nuclear medicine technologist. Data was collected using semi-structured interviews conducted online via Zoom to accommodate COVID-19 restrictions. The data was transcribed and analysed according to interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) protocols. RESULTS : One superordinate theme: systemic regard, demoralising burnout, protective maturity, overarched four subordinate themes: staying physically and psychologically safe;risk of burnout;maturity as protective against burnout;and COVID-19 drain. Pressures both prior to and during COVID-19 leave the participants feeling undervalued, discredited, and at risk of burnout. However, maturity brings confidence to incorporate their strengths in a more holistic view of life. Glimmers of positivity come from choices to alter their career path and the unexpected opportunities to spend time with family through COVID-19 restrictions. DISCUSSION : Overall, the participants of this study expressed a lack of positivity about their own individual experiences within their career. Occupational stress, caused by workplace bullying, increased workload and understaffing increased their risk of burnout. Although as the participants matured, their ability to cope with occupational stressors improved. The recent COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the participants' risk of burnout. CONCLUSION : Due to a number of contributing workplace factors, exacerbated by the unexpected COVID-19 pandemic, participants in this study appeared to have an increased risk of developing burnout. However, maturity and life experience has helped mitigate this risk.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Sex-cybercrimes against children in the Philippines rose by over 400 % during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic exponentially increasing challenges for carers of children, law enforcers, and prosecutors. OBJECTIVE: Burnout, primary, and secondary traumatic stress are some of the potential mental health risks for child protection carers. How longevity of career is sustained, is unknown. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: This idiographic study explored both positive and negative interpretations of frontline workers in the Philippines exposed to sex-cybercrimes against children. METHODS: The protocols of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis guided data collection through semi-structured interviews, transcription, and analysis. RESULTS: One superordinate theme: Irreconcilable destruction of innocence, mercy and justice, and the passionate self; highlights the integral struggle that emerged from these participants' roles in child protection. Their faith philosophy of compassion and forgiveness contrasted with the unfathomable corruption and exploitation they witnessed, and their role in removing child victims from perpetrator family members to serve justice. These internal conflicts necessitated a critical need to self-care against psychological vulnerability. Longevity of career emerged from a co-existence of traumatic distress and psychological growth allowing them to redefine their faith and confront the unfathomable with hope, self-valuing, and purpose. CONCLUSIONS: Justice and mercy were juxtaposed integral conflicts threatening the psychological wellbeing of these participants. Ineffective organisational support aggravated their traumatic distress as did the lethargy with which world governments' engage in effective controls against online crimes of child sexual exploitation which has meteorically risen as a result of the global coronavirus pandemic.