Patient demands, lack of reciprocity, and burnout: a five‐year longitudinal study among general practitioners

This study among a sample of 207 general practitioners uses a five-year longitudinal design to test a process model of burnout and finds that demanding patient contacts produce a lack of reciprocity in the GP-patient relationship, which depletes GPs' emotional resources and initiates the burnout syndrome.

Abstract

This study among a sample of 207 general practitioners (GPs) uses a five-year longitudinal design to test a process model of burnout. On the basis of social exchange and equity theory, it is hypothesized and found that demanding patient contacts produce a lack of reciprocity in the GP-patient relationship, which, in turn, depletes GPs' emotional resources and initiates the burnout syndrome. More specifically, structural equation analyses confirmed that - both at T1 and T2 - lack of reciprocity mediates the impact of patient demands on emotional exhaustion. Emotional exhaustion, in turn, evokes negative attitudes toward patients (depersonalization), and toward oneself in relation to the job (reduced personal accomplishment). Moreover, this process model of burnout was confirmed at T2, even after controlling for T1-scores on each of the model components. Finally, T1 depersonalization predicted the intensity and frequency of T2 patient demands, after controlling for T1 patient demands. This major finding suggests that GPs who attempt to gain emotional distance from their patients as a way of coping with their exhaustion, evoke demanding and threatening patient behaviors themselves. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed. (aut.ref.)