Wellness and Distress in Health Care Professionals Dealing With End of Life and Bioethical Issues

Burnout, fatigue, distress and negative issues are in health care providers with different percentages. To date, little is known about the experience of burnout, fatigue and distress related with end of life and bioethical issues. The main aim of this study is to quantify burnout and identify a set of variables (meaning of life, stress, moral distress, ethical climate, resilience, positive and negative affects) that may impact on professionals dealing with end-of-life and bioethics issues in their working life. The project is an observational multicentre cross-sectional study, population-based. The target population is composed by psychologists, nurses and other healthcare providers dealing with end-of-life/palliative care and other conditions. The study will be conducted using a mixed methods, using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Regarding the quantitative approaches, standardized questionnaires will be administered anonymously to each participant in one time only. Concerning the qualitative approaches, semi-structured interviews will be carried out until the saturation of categories is reached according to the Grounded Theory methodology It is mainly attended that this project may shed light on wellness and distress related to end-of-life and bioethical issues faced in working life by health care providers, considering not only risk factors but also protective and positive ones. The quantitative part of the research is supposed to identify the dimension of burnout in this health-care professionals category and to better clarify the role of some variables (meaning of life, stress, moral distress, ethical climate, resilience, positive and negative affects) that may modulate and affect wellness and distress experienced by this category of workers. The qualitative part of the study will help to frame better the issue, detecting the main demanding aspects.