Participatory Action Research for Tackling Distress and Burnout in Young Medical Researchers: Normative Beliefs before and during the Greek Financial Crisis

Dimitra Sifaki-Pistolla (), Enkeleint A. Mechili, Evangelos Melidoniotis, Alexandros Argyriadis, Evridiki Patelarou and Vasiliki-Eirini Chatzea
Additional contact information
Dimitra Sifaki-Pistolla: Clinic of Social and Family Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Crete, 71003 Heraklion, Crete, Greece
Enkeleint A. Mechili: Clinic of Social and Family Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Crete, 71003 Heraklion, Crete, Greece
Evangelos Melidoniotis: Department of Surgery, University Hospital of Heraklion, 75100 Heraklion, Crete, Greece
Alexandros Argyriadis: School of Health Sciences, Frederick University, Nicosia 3080, Cyprus
Evridiki Patelarou: Department of Nursing, School of Health Sciences, Hellenic Mediterranean University, 71004 Heraklion, Crete, Greece
Vasiliki-Eirini Chatzea: Hellenic Mediterranean University, 71410 Heraklion, Crete, Greece

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 17, 1-12

Abstract: (1) Background: We aimed to explore Young medical researchers (YMR) normative beliefs and perceived causes of distress and burnout, prior and during the financial crisis in Greece, and to assess their views on Participatory Action Research (PAR) interventions towards tackling these disorders. (2) Methods: A Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) methodology was performed in two time periods (prior crisis: December 2008; during crisis: February–March 2017). In both time periods, three different groups (Group 1: females, Group 2: males, Group 3: mixed) of 5–7 participants and two sessions (?1 h/session) per group took place in each site. Overall, 204 sessions with 1036 YMR were include in the study. (3) Results: Several socio-demographic characteristics of YMR altered during the crisis (lower income, higher smoking/alcohol consumption, etc.). The majority of YMR conceived distress and burnout as serious syndromes requiring professional support. Feeling very susceptible and the necessity for establishing PAR interventions were frequently reported during the crisis. Numerous (a) barriers and (b) cues to action were mentioned: (a) lack of time, money and support from friends/family/colleagues (b) being extensively informed about the intervention, participation of their collaborators, and raising awareness events. (4) Conclusions: The changing pattern of Greek YMR’s beliefs and needs during the crisis stresses the necessity of interventions to tackle distress and burnout. Effectiveness of these interventions could be enhanced by the suggested cues to action that emerged from this study.

Keywords: participatory action research; professional burnout; psychological stress; research personnel; economic recession; normative beliefs; qualitative research (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/17/10467/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/17/10467/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:17:p:10467-:d:895040

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().