Friday, 22 February 2019

Dr Julia Hynes, Medical ethics and Law Lead at the Medical School, and her colleagues at the University of Pavia in Italy, have been collaborating on a research project on burnout in healthcare students and professionals, which may be viewed as a silent and deadly epidemic affecting the profession.

The project is entitled ‘Wellness and distress in health care professionals dealing with end of life and bioethical issues (WeDistressHELL)’. The Principal Investigators are located at the University of Pavia, Italy (Prof. P. Argentero, Dott. M. Maffoni) and Istituti Clinici Scientifici Maugeri, Italy (Dott. I. Giorgi, Dott.  A. Giardini). Partners include faculty from: the University of Nicosia Medical School (Dr Julia Hynes); Humanitas Research Hospital, Rozzano, Milan; I.R.C.C.S. Santa Lucia; Centro Riabilitativo, Rome; Faculdade de Medicina – Universidade do Porto, Portugal; and Medical University of Lodz, Poland.

The aim of the research team, which has so far published twice in the BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care, is to find further ways to support healthcare practitioners and students before their ‘…bodies fatigue, hearts break and minds become overburdened watching (at times) unnecessary suffering..’.

[1] The results of their recent systematic review entitled ‘Healthcare professionals’ moral distress in adult palliative care’, maintain that ‘Cognisance of risk and protective factors associated with the moral distress phenomenon may help to reframe palliative healthcare systems, enabling effective and tailored actions that safeguard the well-being of providers, and consequently enhance patient care’.[2]

 At the invitation of Professor Peter Karayiannis, (Associate Dean for Faculty and Research), Dr Hynes will welcome Marina Maffoni, a Ph.D. candidate from the research team (Department of Brain and Behavioural Sciences at the University of Pavia), to our Medical School for two weeks in March 2019 for the purpose of research collaboration and data collection.

Call for research participants:

If you are currently a healthcare student or healthcare practitioner in Cyprus and would like to participate in this project, please contact Dr Julia Hynes at [email protected].

 

[1] Hynes J, Maffoni M, Argentero P, et al. BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care 2019;9:45–46.https://spcare.bmj.com/content/9/1/45

[2] Maffoni M, Argentero P, Giorgi I, et al Healthcare professionals’ moral distress in adult palliative care: a systematic review BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care Published Online First: 12 January 2019. doi: 10.1136/bmjspcare-2018-001674