The Role of Self-Compassion as a Moderator in the Relationship Between Burnout and Psychological Wellbeing in Staff Working with People with Learning Disabilities

Abstract

Objective. Care staff commonly experience burnout during their careers. Selfcompassion is demonstrated to be associated with positive psychological health. Mindfulness interventions are demonstrated to reduce rates of burnout and increase self-compassion across mixed samples. To date, no systematic review has studied the effects of psychological interventions on both self-compassion and burnout solely employing samples of care staff. This systematic review seeks to identify and evaluate studies which explore the impact of psychological interventions on levels of self-compassion and burnout in care staff. Specifically, the review question is: How do psychological (mindfulness, burnout, and wellbeing) interventions affect levels of burnout and self-compassion in populations of care staff?

Methods. Quantitative (or mixed-methods) studies operationalising burnout and self-compassion as outcome variables following a psychological intervention aiming to reduce burnout amongst care staff were selected from multi-disciplinary and subject-specific databases published prior to 1^st March 2018. The systematic literature search yielded 385 records, with 235 non-duplicated results. Screening of the 37 full-text articles culminated in seven eligible studies synthesised in this review.

Results. Results confirmed that psychological interventions can impact all dimensions of burnout and self-compassion in samples of care staff. Overall results remain preliminary or inconclusive due to a small number of studies; the majority of studies employing small, underpowered samples; and where sufficiently powered and statistically significant, effect sizes were often small to medium.

Conclusions. Psychological interventions appear to effect rates of selfcompassion and burnout; however, results are preliminary until further research with sufficiently powered samples demonstrate significant results and interventions demonstrate larger effect sizes.