Introduction: Healthcare professionals face high stress, with patient death being a key factor in burnout, especially in OB/GYN, where it contrasts with expectations of life and birth. Objective: To examine how exposure to death, perceptions of death, and emotion regulation training relate to burnout and professional fulfillment. Methods: Cross-sectional study with 138 OB/GYN clinicians using an author-developed questionnaire. Findings: Burnout correlated strongly with death impact, while fulfillment correlated with development and positive death perception. Unexpectedly, burnout and fulfillment were positively related. Training showed no significant effects. Conclusions: Fulfillment may buffer death exposure despite complex dynamics.

The contemporary healthcare environment is characterized by high stress and emotional burden, contributing to increasing rates of professional burnout among clinicians. Exposure to patient death represents one of the most emotionally taxing experiences in medicine, particularly in obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN), where loss of life stands in stark contrast to the life-giving nature of the field. Despite extensive research on burnout in oncology and intensive care, the impact of patient death and death perception on OB/GYN clinicians remains underexplored. Objective: This study aimed to examine the relationships between exposure to patient death, perceptions of death, professional burnout, and professional fulfillment among OB/GYN clinicians. A secondary aim was to explore whether participation in emotional regulation training was associated with these variables. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 138 OB/GYN clinicians. An author-developed questionnaire was used, comprising scales measuring professional burnout, positive and negative death perception, professional fulfillment, professional development, and a global death-impact index. Statistical analyses included Pearson’s correlation and the Mann–Whitney U test to compare clinicians who had attended emotional regulation training with those who had not. Results: Significant positive correlations were observed between burnout and the death-impact index (r = 0.90, p < 0.001) and between burnout and negative death perception (r = 0.23, p = 0.007). Professional fulfillment strongly correlated with professional development (r = 0.94, p < 0.001) and positively with positive death perception (r = 0.30, p < 0.001). No significant group differences were found regarding emotional regulation training participation. Conclusions: Exposure to patient death in OB/GYN is strongly associated with professional burnout and negative perceptions of death. Conversely, professional fulfillment and development function as factors promoting resilience and meaning. Further research should validate the applied measurement tools and examine the effectiveness of emotional regulation interventions in reducing occupational distress.

Background/Objectives: Occupational burnout remains a major concern among healthcare professionals and is closely linked to chronic workplace stress. Exposure to patient death may represent a death-related psychosocial occupational burden that is emotionally and existentially demanding but still insufficiently examined in relation to burnout. This study aimed to examine associations between exposure-related burden of patient death, death anxiety, and occupational burnout among healthcare professionals, and to explore whether the observed pattern of results was consistent with an indirect statistical association involving death anxiety. Associations between coping strategies, burnout, and death anxiety were also examined. Methods: The study included 60 healthcare professionals representing various healthcare occupations. Data were collected using an anonymous online survey comprising a preliminary author-developed measure of exposure-related burden of patient death, a brief preliminary author-developed measure of death anxiety, the Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT-PL), and the Brief COPE inventory. Statistical analyses included descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation analyses, linear regression, and exploratory indirect effect analysis using Hayes’ PROCESS macro. Results: In the sample of 60 healthcare professionals, exposure-related burden of patient death was positively associated with occupational burnout (r = 0.53, 95% CI [0.32, 0.69], p < 0.001) and death anxiety (r = 0.30, 95% CI [0.05, 0.51], p = 0.022). Death anxiety was positively associated with occupational burnout (r = 0.54, 95% CI [0.33, 0.70], p < 0.001). The exploratory indirect effect analysis yielded a pattern of results consistent with an indirect statistical association involving death anxiety (B = 0.12, 95% CI [0.0001, 0.282]). The overall model accounted for 44.6% of the variance in occupational burnout (R² = 0.446). Avoidant coping strategies were associated with higher levels of death anxiety and burnout, whereas emotion-focused coping strategies were associated with lower levels of death anxiety. Conclusions: The findings suggest that death-related emotional and existential burden may be relevant to understanding occupational burnout among healthcare professionals. Death anxiety may be one psychological factor involved in this association. However, because of the cross-sectional design, small convenience sample, and use of preliminary author-developed measures, the results should be interpreted cautiously and should not be considered evidence of causal mechanisms. These findings highlight the need to consider death-related experiences in occupational burnout prevention and worker well-being strategies in healthcare settings.

Patient death may constitute an emotionally significant but often unrecognized source of occupational grief among healthcare professionals. This study examined disenfranchised grief after patient death and tested whether maladaptive coping strategies mediated its association with psychological well-being. In this cross-sectional pilot survey, 56 healthcare professionals with direct patient contact and professional experience with patient death completed an anonymous online questionnaire assessing disenfranchised grief after patient death, maladaptive coping strategies, and psychological well-being. Disenfranchised grief was negatively associated with psychological well-being and positively associated with maladaptive coping, while maladaptive coping was negatively associated with well-being. Mediation analysis indicated a statistically significant indirect association between disenfranchised grief and well-being through maladaptive coping. These findings suggest that the psychological consequences of patient death may be related not only to exposure to death itself, but also to whether grief is recognized and how professionals cope with it. The results point to the need for organizational support that acknowledges occupational grief and promotes adaptive coping after patient death.