HIV disease plague, demoralization and“Burnout”: Resident experience of the medical profession in Nairobi

Abstract

This paper describes the experiencesof physicians-in-training at a public hospitalin Nairobi, Kenya, where medical professionalspractice in an environment characterized byboth significant lack of resources andpatients with HIV/AIDS in historicallyunprecedented numbers. The data reported hereare part of a larger study examining ethicaldilemmas in medical education and practiceamong physicians in East Africa. Aquestionnaire and semi-structured interviewwere completed by fifty residents in fourmedical specialties, examining social andemotional supports, personal and professionalsources of stress, emotional numbing anddisengagement from patients and peers, andsymptoms of post-traumatic stress anddepression. The factors affecting residentwell-being are found in this study to be morecomplex than previous interviews suggested. This study highlights the fact that as a resultof working in an environment characterized by poor communication among hospital staff aswell as a lack of resources and high numbersof patients with HIV/AIDS, residents'perceptions of themselves – their technicalproficiency, their ability to care and feel forothers and themselves, and for some theirentire sense of self – are significantlyaffected. Also affected are the patients theywork to treat