A narrative review of research on healthcare staff's burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic

Background: During the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, burnout emerges as a critical health problem that might involve workers in many occupations, particularly healthcare personnel. Although burnout syndrome is not necessarily proved to be nosologic, it yields serious physical, mental, and social outcomes. However, it is essential to provide practical strategies and effective instruments for people so that they can adapt to such highly stressful conditions. Objective(s): The present review was conducted to explore preliminary evidence for nature, treatment, and prevention of burnout among healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method(s): Related English literatures published from the beginning of January 2020 to the end of September 2020 were searched in PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Google scholar databases. "Burnout," "COVID-19," "healthcare workers," "medical staff," and "pandemic" constituted the search terms. A narrative technique was implemented for material synthesis and creating a compelling and cohesive story. Result(s): Final results provided the burnout history and its major effects, causes, and prevalence among healthcare workers. Also, some strategies were listed to be employed by hospital medical staff and organizations to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusion(s): Recent evidence demonstrated that healthcare staff could gain significant benefits from interventions to modify burnout syndrome, especially from organization-directed interventions. So, health policymakers and practitioners should adopt such interventions and develop context-specific approaches promoting a healthy workplace and averting burnout during the COVID-19 crisis. Copyright © The Author(s) 2022.

Feasibility and acceptability of virtual career development workshop for pediatric endocrine trainees: A PedsENDO365 initiative

Objectives The identification of goals and development of skills that align with an individual's values provides a professional pathway for success and aids in preventing burnout. This process has been threatened by the COVID 19 pandemic, thus, we created a virtual professional development program for pediatric endocrine fellows training in the United States. Methods PedsENDO 365 is a Pediatric Endocrine Society initiative launched to address year-round learning needs of pediatric endocrine fellows. The workgroup engaged with fellowship program directors across the US as key stakeholders. Lack of resources and expertise, partly due to small program size, were noted as major barriers. Fellow participants completed a pre-workshop inventory to elucidate their personal values, skills and career interests, and to create short and long term learning and career goals. A two-hour session included a presentation about career trajectories, description of individual learning planning process and I-SMART (Important - Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, Time-limited) goal setting. Learners participated in small group discussions facilitated by program directors about the assessment and alignment of skills, interests, and values when developing goals. Results 39 fellows (1st to 4th year) participated in the workshop. 24 attendees (83% women, 13% men and 4% non-binary, 1st year=17%, 2nd year=54%, 3rd year=25%, 4th year=4%) completed an evaluation of the program. 96% fellows found the session relevant and would recommend it to other fellows. The three major takeaways were the importance of aligning values and skills with career goals, setting I-SMART goals, and the importance of time management and work-life balance. The fellows enjoyed the flexibility afforded by the remote session for connecting with participants and leaders across the country. Conclusions A virtual professional development for pediatric endocrine trainees is feasible and well received by participants. Professional societies can provide virtual career development programs to allow networking opportunities with individuals outside their institutions.

Personal Values as Regulators of Teacher Burnout

The aim was to identify the means of correction and prevention of burnout syndrome in college teachers who switched to online teaching during the period of quarantine caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Descriptive and experimental research designs were used to achieve the aim. Causal relationships were defined using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and correlational analysis. The Fisher’s angular transform criterion and the Mann–Whitney U test (STATISTICA 10.0) were used to determine the psychological characteristics of teachers with different levels of burnout syndrome. Boyko’s Emotional Burnout Inventory and Rokeach Value Survey (RVS) were used for diagnosis. The practical recommendations for college administrations were developed based on the causal relationships revealed in the results. It was found that the system of personal values could be an effective regulator of the personal state in difficult situations. © 2022, North American Business Press. All rights reserved.

The mediating role of personal values between COVID-19-related posttraumatic growth and life satisfaction among Chinese college students: A two-wave longitudinal study.

Despite considerable disruption of social order caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, it has also been said to contribute to positive psychological changes and influence on the perception of public life satisfaction. The present study aimed to explore the association between the COVID-19 related posttraumatic growth and life satisfaction and the mediating role of personal values. A two-wave longitudinal design was used. 226 self-quarantined Chinese college students (58.8% male) completed post traumatic growth inventory (Time 1), satisfaction with life scale (Time 2), personal values questionnaire (Time 2) between February 2020 and May 2021. Results showed that more than half of self-quarantined Chinese college students reported moderate to high levels of the COVID-19 related posttraumatic growth. A structural equation model revealed that COVID-19 related posttraumatic growth was positively associated to life satisfaction, and self-transcendence and self-enhancement values partially mediated this association. These findings shed light on whether and how pandemic-related posttraumatic growth influenced personal life satisfaction, supporting the outcome and process perspectives of posttraumatic growth as well as Schwartz's value theory. Based on the findings, some positive psychology interventions, such as online rumination activities and mindfulness practice, were proposed to enhance self-quarantined college students' posttraumatic growth and life satisfaction.

The Fear of Insignificance From a Socio-Communicative Perspective: Reflections on the Role of Cultural Changes in Carlo Strenger’s Thinking

This paper commemorates the work of Carlo Strenger, a prolific writer and unparalleled critic of contemporary culture, with a focus on his thinking concerning the role of cultural changes, and globalization in particular, on the development of what he termed the fear of insignificance. We relate Strenger’s thinking in this regard to socioevolutionary and developmental psychopathology approaches concerning the role of culture in engendering a sense of agency and selfhood. These views illustrate our own shift in thinking concerning the role of psychological and sociocultural factors in the development and course of psychopathology. The implications of these views for the role of culture in psychoanalytic theory and practice are discussed.

The Value(s) of Vaccination: Building the Scientific Evidence According to a Value-Based Healthcare Approach.

Objectives: To provide a new value-based immunization approach collating the available scientific evidence on the topic. Methods: Four value pillars (personal, allocative, technical, and societal) applied to vaccination field were investigated. A systematic literature review was performed querying three database from December 24th, 2010 to May 27th, 2020. It included studies on vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs) that mentioned the term value in any part and which were conducted in advanced economies. An in-depth analysis was performed on studies addressing value as key element. Results: Overall, 107 studies were considered. Approximately half of the studies addressed value as a key element but in most of cases (83.3%) only a single pillar was assessed. Furthermore, the majority of papers addressed the technical value by looking only at classical methods for economic assessment of vaccinations whereas very few dealt with societal and allocative pillars. Conclusions: Estimating the vaccinations value is very complex, even though their usefulness is certain. The assessment of the whole value of vaccines and vaccinations is still limited to some domains and should encompass the wider impact on economic growth and societies.

COVID-19-induced negative emotions and the impacts on personal values and travel behaviors: A threat appraisal perspective

Based on the Protection Motivation Theory (PMT), this paper aims to examine the role of negative emotions and their impacts on personal value orientations and protective travel behaviors during COVID-19. Data were collected among Chinese Generation Z who have shared the cataclysmic experience of COVID-19 in their formative years. A multimethod approach was adopted with focus group discussions to explore prominent changes in personal values during COVID-19, followed by a quantitative study. The serial mediation analysis supported the sequential internalization of negative emotions and personal values induced from COVID-19 threat appraisals, which in combination, imposed indirect effects on travel avoidance behavior. An extended model suggested that fear is positively related to the values of altruism and hedonism, while mild negative emotions are associated with target orientation. Altruism was found to enhance travel avoidance propensity while target orientation attenuated such propensity. The findings shed light for both academia and the industry.

WHY DO STUDENTS ENGAGE in GAMIFICATION? AN EXPLORATORY STUDY USING MEANS-END CHAINS

Gamification is one of the educational techniques that increase the motivation and engagement of learners. With the expansion of gamification in higher education, especially in the context of COVID 19 emergence, it is an increased need to know about student engagement in such behavior. While many topics of gamification are growing at a rapid pace, the students’ personal values were not uncovered in related literature. The current study sought to address this gap by investigating a set of students’ personal values when they participate in gamification. Based on interview 69 students by the laddering technique, six personal values that drive students to participate in gamification are explored in the current study, such as Social Recognition, Exciting life, Sense of accomplishment, Sense of belongingness, Self Enhancement, and Self-expression. The findings suggest that educators and teachers focus on investigating how personal values can be used to motivate learners, improve their skills, and maximize learning by gamification. © 2021 Little Lion Scientific