CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 6Healthcare professionals’ stress and burnoutStress and Burnout ResearchOccupational Health and Burnout

Between suffering and coping: burnout in female medical doctors in South Africa

Open access
Oosthuizen, Rudolf M., Mashego, Keitumetse, Mayer, Claude-Hélène·2023·Frontiers in Psychology
DOI 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1161740PMC PMC10277932
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

Burnout is described as emotional and physical exhaustion, reduced accomplishment, together with an outlook of inadequacy and cynicism related to job stress. It has a harmful impact globally, especially in developing countries, such as South Africa. This study is a phenomenological collective case study focusing on burnout experience in a sample of female medical doctors working in a South African public hospital. Based on ongoing explorations of burnout themes, empirically based intervention strategies are needed to be developed and presented for the South African public health sector to prevent stress-related burnout. The findings support the trend in literature that burnout is an overwhelming experience for female medical doctors in South Africa. The study presents voices of female medical doctors, their concerns, the causes for burnout and their coping mechanisms. It provides a strong contribution to exploring and presenting women’s experiences in working in the medical field in South Africa from a positive psychology perspective. The findings indicate the struggles and the coping mechanisms of female medical doctors working in the field.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1161740

Cites

6 of 6 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Female clinicians drew on cultural expectations of resilience and collective identity to find meaning and sustain motivation.

    “Female clinicians drew on cultural expectations of resilience and collective identity to find meaning and sustain motivation (33).”

    From Management strategies for healthcare worker burnout in Sub-Saharan Africa: an integrative review (2026) · cites this paper as [33]

    The Findings (§5.2) describe limited coping strategies, frustration, and difficulty obtaining family or group support, rather than drawing strength from a collective identity. The Discussion (§6) describes a collapsed sense of belonging, helplessness, and hopelessness—not cultural expectations of resilience sustaining meaning and motivation. Page numbers are not available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.84)

    Checked by a reasoning model — may be wrong.

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Nurses and physicians who used humor, meaning-making, and self-reflection managed burnout more effectively, while those who suppressed emotions or detached themselves experienced greater emotional exhaustion.

    “Qualitative studies confirmed these patterns, showing that nurses and physicians who used humor, meaning-making, and self-reflection managed burnout more effectively, while those who suppressed emotions or detached themselves experienced greater emotional exhaustion (19, 33).”

    From Management strategies for healthcare worker burnout in Sub-Saharan Africa: an integrative review (2026) · cites this paper as [33]

    The Findings (§5.2; no page provided) report that some female medical doctors reframed challenges to cope, but do not show that humor or self-reflection helped them manage burnout more effectively. The Discussion (§6; no page provided) links emotional distancing and isolation to poor coping and depersonalization. This study concerns female medical doctors, not nurses, and does not establish that emotional suppression caused greater emotional exhaustion. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • In South Africa, staff felt less isolated and more emotionally supported when organizational leadership was present, responsive and communicative.

    “In addition, findings from South Africa, showed that staff felt less isolated and more emotionally supported when organizational leadership was present, responsive and communicative (33, 34).”

    From Management strategies for healthcare worker burnout in Sub-Saharan Africa: an integrative review (2026) · cites this paper as [33]

    The Findings (§5.2; page unavailable) link poor coordination, unheard concerns and poor management support to female medical doctors feeling isolated and lacking emotional support. They do not report that staff felt less isolated or more supported when leadership was present, responsive and communicative; the claim turns a finding about absent support into an observed positive outcome and broadens it beyond the participants. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Across multiple studies, maladaptive strategies such as denial, withdrawal, venting, disengagement, self-blame, and self-distraction were consistently associated with higher psychological distress, increased burnout, and poorer emotional and occupational outcomes among healthcare workers.

    “Across multiple studies, maladaptive strategies such as denial, withdrawal, venting, disengagement, self-blame, and self-distraction were consistently associated with higher psychological distress, increased burnout, and poorer emotional and occupational outcomes among healthcare workers (18, 33).”

    From Management strategies for healthcare worker burnout in Sub-Saharan Africa: an integrative review (2026) · cites this paper as [33]

    The Findings (§5.2) describe limited coping among female medical doctors, and the Discussion (§6) links isolation and reduced empathy with emotional strain and problems in care. But this qualitative study does not report consistent associations across multiple studies, identify most of the listed strategies, or establish that those strategies increase burnout; it describes burnout as contributing to poor coping. (LLM, conf=0.85)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Self-neglect, withdrawal, behavioral disengagement, and emotional suppression were commonly reported in both rural South Africa and Uganda.

    “Similarly, self-neglect, withdrawal, behavioral disengagement, and emotional suppression were commonly reported in both rural South Africa and Uganda (18, 33).”

    From Management strategies for healthcare worker burnout in Sub-Saharan Africa: an integrative review (2026) · cites this paper as [33]

    The Discussion reports that the South African participants isolated themselves, reduced empathy, became emotionally blunted, and developed a “do not care attitude”; the Findings also say they tended not to communicate some challenges. These passages support withdrawal and aspects of disengagement and emotional suppression, but do not establish self-neglect. The Sample section describes seven doctors at a South African public hospital, not a specifically rural setting, and this paper provides no findings from Uganda. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 58

  1. Ahola K. Toppinen-Tanner S. Seppänen J. (2017). Interventions to alleviate burnout symptoms and to support return to work among employees with burnout: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Burn. Res. 4, 1– 11. 10.1016/j.burn.2017.02.001 · DOI
  2. Alam M. Z. Alam M. M. D. Uddin M. A. Mohd Noor N. A. (2022). Do mobile health (mHealth) services ensure the quality of health life? An integrated approach from a developing country context. J. Market. Commun. 28 152– 182. 10.1080/13527266.2020.1848900 · DOI
  3. Armond A. C. V. Gordijn B. Lewis J. Hosseini M. Bodnár J. K. Holm S. (2021). A scoping review of the literature featuring research ethics and research integrity cases. BMC Med. Ethics 22: 50. 10.1186/s12910-021-00620-8 33931043 PMC8086087 · DOI
  4. Babbie E. Mouton J. (2010). The practice of social research. Cape Town: Oxford University Press.
  5. Bährer-Kohler S. (2013). “ Introduction,” in Burnout for experts: Prevention in the context of living and working, ed. Bährer-Kohler S. (New York, NY: Springer), 1– 13. 10.1007/978-1-4614-4391-9_1 · DOI
  6. Banda Chitsamatanga B. Malinga W. (2021). ‘A tale of two paradoxes in response to COVID-19’: Public health system and socio-economic implications of the pandemic in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Cogent. Soc. Sci. 7: 1869368. 10.1080/23311886.2020.1869368 · DOI
  7. Beck E. D. Jackson J. J. (2020). Idiographic traits: A return to Allportian approaches to personality. Curr. Direct. Psychol. Sci. 29 301– 308. 10.1177/0963721420915860 · DOI
  8. Carod-Artal F. J. Vázquez-Cabrera C. (2013). “ Burnout syndrome in an international setting,” in Burnout for experts: Prevention in the context of living and working, ed. Bährer-Kohler S. (New York, NY: Springer), 15– 35. 10.1007/978-1-4614-4391-9_2 · DOI
  9. Centre for Substance Abuse Treatment [CSAT] (1999). “ Brief interventions and brief therapies for substance abuse,” In Chapter 9: Time-limited group therapy. Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) Series, No. 34 (Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (US)). Available online at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK64936/
  10. Davhana-Maselesele M. Igumbor J. O. (2008). The impact of caring for persons living with HIV and Aids on the mental health of nurses in the Limpopo Province. Curationis 31 67– 73. 10.4102/curationis.v31i2.987 19006960 · DOI
  11. Dudovskiy D. (2022). Ultimate guide to writing a dissertation in business studies: A step-by-step assistance, 6th Edn. Available online at: https://research-methodology.net/about-us/ebook/ (accessed September 01, 2022).
  12. Edú-Valsania S. Laguía A. Moriano J. A. (2022). Burnout: A review of theory and measurement. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 19: 1780. 10.3390/ijerph19031780 35162802 PMC8834764 · DOI · Paper page
  13. Erasmus N. (2012). Slaves of the state: Medical internship and community service in South Africa. S. Afr. Med. J. 102 655– 658. 10.7196/SAMJ.5987 22831937 · DOI
  14. Fink G. (2007). Encyclopaedia of stress, 2nd Edn. Boston, MA: Elsevier.
  15. Finlay L. (2008). Introducing phenomenological research. 10.29173/pandpr19818 · DOI
  16. Garvin C. D. Gutierrez L. M. Galiinsky M. J. (eds) (2004). Handbook of social work with groups. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
  17. Giorgi A. (1985). Phenomenology and psychological research. Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press.
  18. Giorgi A. (1997). The theory, practice and evaluation of the phenomenological method as a qualitative research procedure. J. Phenomenol. Psychol. 28 235– 260. 10.1163/156916297X00103 · DOI
  19. Giorgi A. (2009). The descriptive phenomenological method in psychology: A modified Husserlian approach. Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press.
  20. Goldie J. (2012). The formulation of professional identity in medical students: Consideration for educators. Med. Teach. 34 641– 648. 10.3109/0142159X.2012.687476 22905665 · DOI
  21. HaGani N. Yagil D. Cohen M. (2022). Burnout among oncologists and oncology nurses: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Health Psychol. 41: 53. 10.1037/hea0001155 35113585 · DOI
  22. Helkavaara M. (2013). “ Emotional exhaustion and psychosocial work factors,” in Burnout for experts: Prevention in the context of living and working, ed. Bährer-Kohler S. (New York, NY: Springer), 159– 168. 10.1007/978-1-4614-4391-9_10 · DOI
  23. Hodkinson A. Zhou A. Johnson J. Geraghty K. Riley R. Zhou A. (2022). Associations of physician burnout with career engagement and quality of patient care: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Bus. Manag. J. 378: e070442. 10.1136/bmj-2022-070442 36104064 PMC9472104 · DOI · Paper page
  24. Houkes I. Winants Y. Twellaar M. Verdonk P. (2011). Development of burnout over time and the causal order of the three dimensions of burnout among male and female GPs: A three-wave panel study. BMC Public Health 11: 240. 10.1186/1471-2458-11-240 21501467 PMC3101180 · DOI
  25. Innstrand S. T. Langbelle E. M. Falkum E. Aasland O. G. (2011). Exploring within- and between-gender differences in burnout: 8 different occupational groups. Int. Arch. Occup. Environ. Health 84 813– 824. 10.1007/s00420-011-0667-y 21688002 · DOI
  26. Jun J. Ojemeni M. M. Kalamani R. Tong J. Crecelius M. L. (2021). Relationship between nurse burnout, patient and organizational outcomes: Systematic review. Int. J. Nurs. Stud. 119: 103933. 10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2021.103933 33901940 · DOI · Paper page
  27. Karl D. Fischer M. (2013). “ Prevention and communication: A most effective tailored treatment strategies for burnout,” in Burnout for experts: Prevention in the context of living and working, ed. Bährer-Kohler S. (New York, NY: Springer), 185– 200. 10.1007/978-1-4614-4391-9_12 · DOI
  28. Kotzee T. J. Couper I. D. (2006). What interventions do South African qualified doctors think will retain them in rural hospitals of the Limpopo Province of South Africa? Rural Remote Health 6: 581. 10.22605/RRH581 16965219 · DOI
  29. Lazarus R. S. Folkman S. (1984). Stress, appraisal and coping. New York, NY: Springer.
  30. Lemaire J. B. Wallace J. E. (2017). Burnout amongst doctors. Br. Med. J. 358: j3360. 10.1136/bmj.j3360 28710272 · DOI
  31. Liebenberg A. R. Coetzee J. F. Conradie H. H. Coetzee J. F. (2018). Burnout among rural hospital doctors in the Western Cape: Comparison with previous South African studies. Afr. J. Primary Health Care Fam. Med. 10: a1568. 10.4102/phcfm.v10i1.1568 29943596 PMC6018597 · DOI
  32. Marcatto F. Di Blas L. Luis O. Festa S. Ferrante D. (2022). The Perceived Occupational Stress Scale: A brief tool for measuring workers’ perceptions of stress at work. Eur. J. Psychol. Assess. 38: 293. 10.1027/1015-5759/a000677 · DOI
  33. Marutha N. S. (2022). “ Studying medical records management in the public healthcare sector of South Africa using multi-method,” in Research anthology on innovative research methodologies and utilization across multiple disciplines, eds Khosrow-Pour M. Clarke S. Jennex M. E. Anttiroiko A. V. Kamel S. I Lee J. (Pennsylvania, PA: IGI Global), 114– 134. 10.4018/978-1-6684-3881-7.ch007 · DOI
  34. Maslach C. (1978). The client role in staff burnout. J. Soc. Issues 34 111– 124. 10.1111/j.1540-4560.1978.tb00778.x · DOI
  35. Maslach C. (2003). Job burnout: New directions in research and intervention. Curr. Direct. Psychol. Sci. 12 189– 192. 10.1111/1467-8721.01258 · DOI
  36. Maslach C. Jackson S. E. (1986). Maslach burnout inventory. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.
  37. Maslach C. Jackson S. E. Leiter M. P. (1996). Maslach burnout inventory manual, 3rd Edn. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.
  38. Maslach C. Schaufeli W. B. Leiter M. P. (2001). Job burnout. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 52 397– 422. 10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.397 11148311 · DOI · Paper page
  39. Mathias C. T. Wentzel D. L. (2017). Descriptive study of burnout, compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction in undergraduate nursing students at a tertiary education institution in KwaZulu-Natal. Curationis 40: a1784. 10.4102/curationis.v40i1.1784 29041784 PMC6091556 · DOI
  40. Mbunge E. (2020). Effects of COVID-19 in South African health system and society: An exploratory study, diabetes & metabolic syndrome. Clin. Res. Rev. 14 1809– 1814. 10.1016/j.dsx.2020.09.016 32956925 PMC7485444 · DOI
  41. Meier S. T. Kim S. (2022). Meta-regression analyses of relationships between burnout and depression with sampling and measurement methodological moderators. J. Occup. Health Psychol. 27: 195. 10.1037/ocp0000273 33779198 · DOI
  42. Milićević-Kalašić A. (2013). “ Burnout examination,” in Burnout for experts: Prevention in the context of living and working, ed. Bährer-Kohler S. (New York, NY: Springer), 169– 183. 10.1007/978-1-4614-4391-9_11 · DOI
  43. Murthy V. H. (2022). Confronting health worker burnout and well-being. N. Engl. J. Med. 387 577– 579. 10.1056/NEJMp2207252 35830683 · DOI
  44. Naidoo T. Tomita A. Paruk S. (2020). Burnout, anxiety and depression risk in medical doctors working in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa: Evidence from a multi-site study of resource-constrained government hospitals in a generalised HIV epidemic setting. PLoS One 15: e0239753. 10.1371/journal.pone.0239753 33052921 PMC7556533 · DOI
  45. Ohue T. Moriyama M. Nakaya T. (2011). Examination of cognitive model of stress, burnout, and intention to resign for Japanese nurses. Japan J. Nurs. Sci. 8 76– 86. 10.1111/j.1742-7924.2010.00161.x 21615700 · DOI
  46. Peltzer K. Mashego T.-A. Mabeba M. (2003). Short communication: Occupational stress and burnout among South African medical practitioners. Stress Health 19 275– 280. 10.1002/smi.982 · DOI
  47. Rothmann S. (2003). Burnout and engagement: A South African perspective. SA J. Ind. Psychol. 29 16– 25. 10.4102/sajip.v29i4.121 · DOI
  48. Schaufeli W. B. Enzmann D. (1998). The burnout companion to study and practice: A critical analysis. London: Taylor & Francis.
  49. Scotland J. (2012). Exploring the physiological underpinnings of research: Relating ontology and epistemology to the methodological and methods of the scientific, interpretive, and critical research paradigms. English Lang. Teach. 5 9– 16. 10.5539/elt.v5n9p9 · DOI
  50. Sirsawy U. Steinberg W. J. Raubenheimer J. E. (2016). Levels of burnout among registrars and medical officers working at Bloemfontein public health care facilities in 2013. S. Afr. Fam. Pract. 58 1– 6. 10.1080/20786190.2016.1198088 · DOI
  51. Sorenson C. Wright K. Hamilton R. (2016). Understanding compassion fatigue in healthcare providers: A review of current literature. J. Nurs. Scholarsh. 48 456– 465. 10.1111/jnu.12229 27351469 · DOI
  52. Stoyanov D. S. Cloninger C. R. (2011). Relation of people centered public health to person centered health care management. Int. J. Person Center. Med. 2 90– 95. PMC3805943 24163731
  53. Tesch R. (1990). Qualitative Research: Analysis types and software tools. Hamsphire: Falmer Press.
  54. Thomas L. S. Valli A. (2006). Levels of occupational stress in doctors working in a South African public sector hospital. S. Afr. Med. J. Forum 96 1162– 1168. 17167700
  55. Tiwari R. Wildschut-February A. Nkonki L. (2021). Reflecting on the current scenario and forecasting the future demand for medical doctors in South Africa up to 2030: Towards equal representation of women. Hum. Resour. Health 19: 27. 10.1186/s12960-021-00567-2 33653366 PMC7923812 · DOI
  56. Viehl C. Dispenza F. McCullough R. Guvensel K. (2017). Burnout among sexual minority mental health practitioners: Investigating correlates and predictors. Psychol. Sex. Orient. Gender Divers. 4 354– 361. 10.1037/sgd0000236 · DOI
  57. Wagaman M. A. Geiger J. M. Shockely C. Segal E. (2015). The role of empathy in burnout, compassion satisfaction, and secondary traumatic stress among social workers. Social Work 60: 3. 10.1093/sw/swv014 26173361 · DOI
  58. Yin R. K. (2018). Applications of case study research. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Oosthuizen, R. M., Mashego, K., & Mayer, C.-H.
Affiliations
  • University of South Africa (ZA)
  • University of Johannesburg (ZA)
Corresponding author
Oosthuizen, Rudolf M.
ORCID
Venue
Frontiers in Psychology
Publisher
Frontiers Media SA
Published
2023-06-05
Volume
14
Pages
1161740-1161740
ISSN
1664-1078 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1161740
PMC
PMC10277932
OpenAlex
W4379385015
Cited by
6
References
6
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 2
FWCI
2.12
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Frontiers in Psychology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Healthcare professionals’ stress and burnout
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Stress and Burnout Research
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › Occupational Therapy › Occupational Health and Burnout
Keywords
burnout, women in medicine, coping strategies, occupational stress, emotional exhaustion, cynicism, public hospitals, South Africa, positive psychology

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review