Empathy Levels Among Healthcare Professionals: An Asian Multi-professional Cross-Sectional Study.

BACKGROUND: The aim of the study was to measure empathy in healthcare professionals in Singapore and to compare the scores between the different professions: doctors, nurses, and allied health professionals. METHODS: An online survey questionnaire was conducted using the Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE) from July 2019 to January 2020. The total JSE score was calculated and compared among the different groups. Multiple linear regression was performed to assess predictors of total empathy scores for groups with statistically lower scores. RESULTS: The survey was completed by 4,188 healthcare professionals (doctors (n=569, 13.6%), nurses (n=3032, 72.4%), and allied health professionals (n=587, 14.0%)) out of the 9,348-strong survey population, with a response rate of 44.8%. The study revealed a mean empathy score (SD) of 103.6 (15.6) for the cohort. The mean empathy score (SD) was 112.3 (14.7), 101.3 (15.2), and 107.0 (15.0), respectively for doctors, nurses, and allied health professionals. These were statistically significantly different among the groups (p< 0.0001), with nurses scoring significantly lower than either doctors (p< 0.0001) or allied health professionals (p< 0.0001). Multiple linear regression showed that age < 30 years old, male gender, Malay ethnicity, and working in a hospital setting were associated with significantly lower empathy scores in the nursing group. CONCLUSION: Nurses in Singapore had significantly lower empathy scores compared to doctors and allied health professionals. Further research on the underlying causes should be undertaken and measures to improve empathy among Singapore nursing staff should be explored and implemented.

Sleep quality and burnout: A Singapore study.

INTRODUCTION: Improved sleep hygiene is postulated to be protective against burnout. Previous studies assessing a potential association between poor sleep quality and burnout showed incongruent results. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between sleep quality and burnout. DESIGN: Setting and Participants: A survey was conducted in a large health care cluster in Singapore and included health care staff from different professions (N = 4777). The Maslach Burnout Inventory - Human Services Survey was used to measure burnout across 3 sub-scales: Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization and Personal Accomplishment, while the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) was used to gauge the participants' sleep quality. Multi-variable general linear model ANOVA was used for correlation analysis. RESULTS: There is a strong correlation between sleep quality and all 3 burnout sub-scales. PSQI is associated with Emotional Exhaustion (F value = 90.65, P-value <.0001), Depersonalization (F value = 49.46, P-value <.0001) and Personal Accomplishment (F value = 12.29, P-value <.0001). PSQI shows a significant linear upward trend with Emotional Exhaustion (linear contrast = 957.06, P-value <.0001) and with Depersonalization (linear contrast = 521.92, P-value <.0001). With Personal Accomplishment, PSQI shows a significant linear downward trend (linear contrast = 123.61, P-value <.0001). CONCLUSION: Poor sleep quality is progressively and linearly associated with burnout and its 3 sub-scales. Future studies that evaluate interventions which improve sleep quality among health care workers may be useful in reducing burnout and improving patient care.

Prevalence of burnout among healthcare professionals in Singapore.

INTRODUCTION: The aim was to study the prevalence of burnout among various groups of healthcare professionals in Singapore. METHODS: An anonymous online survey questionnaire was conducted using the Maslach Burnout Inventory - Human Services to measure three categories of burnout: emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalisation (DP) and personal accomplishment (PA) from July 2019 to January 2020 in a healthcare cluster in Singapore. RESULTS: The survey was completed by 6,048 healthcare professionals out of a target survey population of 15,000 (response rate 40.3%). The study revealed 37.8% of respondents had high EE score ≥27, 29.7% of respondents had high DP score ≥10, and 55.3% of respondents had low PA score ≤33. Respondents with either high EE score or high DP score constituted 43.9% (n=2,654). The Allied Health group had the highest mean EE score, which was significantly higher than those of Medical, Nursing and Non-clinical groups (P<0.05). The Medical group had the highest mean DP score and this was significantly higher than the Nursing, Allied Health and Non-clinical groups (P<0.05). The Non-clinical group had the lowest PA, which was significantly lower than the Medical, Nursing and Allied Health groups (P<0.005). CONCLUSION: There was high prevalence of burnout among healthcare professionals in Singapore, especially the allied health professionals. There were significant differences in the 3 categories of burnout (EE, DP and PA) among the different groups of healthcare professionals. There is an urgent need to address the high burnout rate.