From burnout to better health: Nadim Kara’s case for human-centred benefits - Human Resources Director

Burnout is a syndrome that can develop as a result of chronic work-related stress that is not properly managed. It can affect workers' health, the quality of care they provide and the sustainability of services. It involves physical and emotional exhaustion and can affect anyone working in any sector, although it is particularly common among healthcare professionals due to high work and emotional demands, time pressure, bureaucracy, limited resources, a poor work-life balance and the perception of being undervalued. These factors can lead to emotional exhaustion, psychological disengagement from their work and reduced job satisfaction. The study, titled Characterization of healthcare professionals with low levels of occupational burnout, has identified protective factors against burnout in healthcare professionals. The research was promoted by the Social Observatory and led by Dr Oriol Yuguero of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya's (UOC) eHealth Centre and Anna Mitjans, project coordinator at the Galatea Foundation, with the collaboration of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), the University of Lleida (UdL) and the Catalan Institute of Health (ICS).

Among cancer patients, the high financial cost of cancer care is a prevalent problem. This financial burden is also associated with potentially harmful behavioral strategies that patients might use to cope with costs, such as delaying or forgoing treatment and skipping medications. Collectively, researchers refer to this impact as financial toxicity.