Creative approaches for reducing burnout in medical personnel

In today's healthcare environment, there is an urgent need to address job burnout because of its negative impact on medical personnel and consequently, service delivery to patients (Gray-Toft & Anderson, 1981). The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of music-imagery on self-reported burnout, sense of coherence and job satisfaction in nursing personnel, and to examine the self-reported perceptions of nursing personnel with regards to the music-imagery experiences. Sixty-five medical personnel who had direct patient contact participated in a two-arm randomized controlled mixed-methods trial. Results revealed that there were no statistically significant differences in change scores between the control and experimental groups for self-reported burnout, sense of coherence, and job satisfaction. Qualitative results on the subjects’ self-report of the interventions indicated that the music-imagery experience helped them to relax, rejuvenate, and re-focus, enabling them to complete their shifts with renewed energy. Various reasons for the differences between the qualitative and quantitative results were discussed, as well as implications for future research.