Article
Junior Bálant groups as a mean of preventing burn-out
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Authors
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Annabella Obál
- University of Szeged, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Behavioural Sciences, Szeged, Hungary
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Katalin Barabás
- University of Szeged, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Behavioural Sciences, Szeged, Hungary
| Published: | September 5, 2012 |
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Outline
Poster
Burnout can be defined “as an experience of physical, emotional and mental exhaustion, caused by long-term involvement in situations that are emotionally demanding”.
Medical students experience a high level of stress during their years of training and will have to cope with emotionally demanding situations everyday in their future profession. It is important to teach students different kinds of coping methods to deal with these difficult situations and thus prevent burning out.
Bálint group is an internationally well-known method for examining the doctorpatient relationship. Junior Bálint group for students was invented by Professor Boris Luban-Plozza in Milano in 1969. Junior Bálint groups help students to look beyond the surface of a challenging situation or interaction and, thus understand the emotions and reactions that they evoked in them. The method also enhances the student’s ability of psychosomatic thinking and teaches the students to work in teams. It also gives a chance for students to state their opinions in a safe, secure atmosphere about topics which are emotionally challenging to them.
The Junior Bálint group of the University of Szeged consists of 10 students, from years third through fifth. The group meets once a month, each session is one and a half hour long. This group has been working together for a year.
On our poster we present the method of Junior Bálint groups and show the topics which were discussed during the sessions. The topics point out the sensitive areas which should be attended to.
