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Physicians must
continuously respond to the neeeds of patients and families and expend their own emotional
resources to provide care and caring to others. Medical encounters are often stressful and
the physician must reach deep within him-or herself to give to those unable to give back
or express gratitude. Patient and societal expectations demand certainity from the medical
profession, while medical knowledge includes limitations and uncertainities. Physicians
everyday are called on to cope and adapt with stresses charecteristics of their role.
Intense withdrawal of emotional reserves is required, while emotional deposits may be
infrequent and few. For some coping capabilities prove insufficient and emotional reserves
become depleted. For these burnout becomes reality (1). |