Difficult situations faced by physicians working in family health centers in Samsun province while providing primary health care services and the effect of this situation on the level of professional burnout

Aim: The aim of this study is to identify the difficult situations that primary care physicians encounter while providing healthcare services and to evaluate the impact of these situations on their professional burnout levels. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional and descriptive study was conducted between February 2023 and April 2023 with 122 family physicians working in family health centers in Samsun province who agreed to participate in the study. The study used a questionnaire on difficult situations created by the researchers and the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). Results: 122 people participated in the study. The average age of the 122 participants was 45.12±10.98, of which 52.5% were male (n=64) and 86.9% were married (n=106). In this study, the majority of difficult patients identified by the participants were male in gender, adult in age group, and married in marital status. The total score average obtained from the difficult situations questionnaire was found to be 56.04±13.54. The patient groups with the highest scores on the difficult situations questionnaire were those who requested unnecessary tests or procedures / their relatives and those who made improper / illegal requests such as report writing or prescription / their relatives. The patient group that applied physical violence to themselves or their relatives had the lowest scores. MBI was used in the study to determine the level of burnout among physicians. Accordingly, the mean score obtained from the Personal Accomplishment sub-dimension was found to be 19.69±5.03, the mean score obtained from the Depersonalization sub-dimension was 5.87±3.67, and the mean score obtained from the Emotional Exhaustion sub-dimension was 17.43±7.71. In the study, it was found that as age, years of working in the profession, satisfaction with working conditions, and adequacy of pre-graduation education in dealing with difficult situations increased, the individual score on the difficult situations questionnaire decreased. In multiple regression analysis, it was found that difficult situations positively and insignificantly predicted personal accomplishment, positively and significantly predicted depersonalization, and positively and significantly predicted emotional exhaustion. Conclusion: There are many factors that cause professional burnout. The difficult situations that physicians experience in primary care are just one of the reasons that affect burnout. More comprehensive studies are needed on this subject. Keywords: Difficult patient, burnout, family physicians