Spirituality and Burnout: a study of the Pastoral Implications of the Spiritual Practices of the Christian Health Care Professionals in India

Chathanattu Pothen Philip - Doctor of Ministry. Supervisor - Dr. Brian Edgar

This study examined the relationship of spirituality and religious coping to burnout in Christian medical doctors in India. It was hypothesized that Christian medical doctors who employ collaborative and surrender styles of coping will experience less burnout when dealing with stressful situations. The sample consisted of 108 Christian doctors from India.

The following instruments were used in this study: Daily Spiritual Experiences Scale (DSES), Religious Problem-Solving Scale (RPSS), Surrender Scale (SS), Organizational Religiousness Measure (ORM), Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI), external sources of support, and relevant demographic information.

The results confirmed the hypothesized relationship between collaborative coping and burnout. Surrender correlated with only one dimension of burnout. Since surrender to God is a common feature of Indian spirituality, irrespective of religious persuasion, it was decided to do a partial correlation analysis controlling for surrender. The result showed that the Deferring Style of Coping is clearly positively associated with burnout in Indian Christian doctors.

Three dimensions of the Daily Spiritual Experiences Scale significantly correlated with all aspects of the CBI. After validity tests, these components were combined to for a single separate variable called External Spirituality.

Among the demographic variables used in this study, doctor’s age, hours of work and denominational affiliation showed significant correlation with burnout. Younger doctors appeared to experience more burnout than older doctors. Those doctors who worked long hours seemed to suffer from work related burnout and results indicated that those doctors who belonged to the Interdenominational group suffered more from related burnout. Further analyses showed that those demographic variables which positively correlated with burnout negatively correlated with External Spirituality and Collaborative Coping.

Multiple regression analyses were performed to study the relationship among all the variables that significantly correlated with burnout. Hours of work, Age of the participant (AGE), Denomination (Interdenomination), External Spirituality (EXTSPRIT), Collaborative Coping (COLLABORATING), and Deferring coping (DEFERRING) were entered into the regression analyses as predictors and the three subscales of CBI as dependent variables. External Spirituality (EXTSPIRIT) and Collaborative Coping (COLLABORATIVE) emerged as the main predictor of lower (reduced) burnout. Deferring Coping (DEFER) is the most important predictor of higher (more) burnout. Age appears to be a moderate predictor of client burnout and hours of work had a significant correlation with work burnout. The other variable, (INTERDENOMINATIONAL) showed moderate significance with work burnout.

The subjects of this study demonstrated a remarkably low level of work and patient burnout and a higher than normal level of personal burnout. This is contrary to the general assumption that stress among health professionals is induced mostly by emotion-laden patient contacts. This phenomenon was further investigated in the light of studies of volunteer satisfaction, volunteer behavior, and the maladaptive values of organizations.

This study shows that not all forms and practices of spirituality are healthy or desirable. Some forms of spirituality can be dysfunctional. Similarly, attitudes to work and workplace attitudes can be a reflection of individual’s and organisations’ spiritual orientation. Maladaptive spiritual values, whether or an individual or an organization, can lead to stress and burnout. The implications of these findings to pastoral care are discussed.

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