Research on healthcare shows that the relationship between empathy and burnout is complex. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to clarify the link between different empathic components and burnout components in healthcare professionals. A systematic review was conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidance. The search strategy was applied in PubMed, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Scopus, and Medline, from January 1990 to January 2021. Population included nurses and doctors. Key inclusion criteria were articles addressing the relationship between different components of empathy and professional performance and wellbeing or burn out, or studies using burnout and empathy measures with validity support from commonly accepted sources of evidence. Risk of bias was assessed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool. From 1159 references identified, 22 studies were included in the systematic review, and 5 studies in the meta-analysis. Empathic Concern was significantly correlated with Depersonalization and Personal Accomplishment. Moreover, the links between Perspective Taking, Depersonalization and Personal Accomplishment were statistically significant. In conclusion, exploring and understanding the complex links between empathy and burnout could help healthcare professionals as well as institutions to reduce the risk of suffering burnout.

Background: Transgender people have a gender identity different from the one allocated to them at birth. In many countries, transsexualism and transgenderism are considered mental illnesses under the diagnosis of gender dysphoria. This pathologization impacts on human rights. Main content: The United Nations (UN) has denounced violations against trans-people, including attacks, forced medical treatments, lack of legal gender recognition, and discrimination in the areas of education, employment, access to healthcare, and justice. The UN has linked these violations directly with discriminatory diagnostic classifications that pathologize gender diversity. Trans-people have been pathologized by psycho-medical classification and laws all around the world, with a different impact depending on countries. This paper argues that pathologization infringes infringes upon a wide range of human rights such as; civil, economic, social cultural and also the access to medical care. Conclusions: The current situation for trans-people with respect to legal healthcare matters, depends on the country. Human rights are universal, not a question for cultural interpretation. They are the minimum that every human being must have assured only by the fact of being human. Countries must protect these rights by regulating trans-pathologization with special attention dedicated to intersex people and their specific needs.

Organizational dehumanization has detrimental consequences for workers’ well-being. Previous research has focused on organizational factors that trigger workers’ dehumanization or stress at work. However, less is known about the factors that can protect workers against the detrimental effects of dehumanization. In the present research, we performed a correlational study (N = 930) and a direct replication of it (N = 913) to analyze 1) the mediation role of organizational dehumanization in the relationship between authentic leadership and stress at work, and 2) the possible moderation of organizational identification and the frequency of leader-follower interactions. The results indicated that higher authentic leadership predicted lower organizational dehumanization and stress at work. Moreover, organizational dehumanization mediates the relationship between authentic leadership and stress at work. La deshumanización organizacional tiene efectos muy perjudiciales para el bienestar profesional. Estudios previos se han centrado en identificar factores organizacionales que desencadenan la deshumanización de los trabajadores o el estrés en el contexto laboral. Sin embargo, se conoce muy poco sobre los factores que pueden proteger a los trabajadores de los efectos negativos de la deshumanización. En esta investigación llevamos a cabo un estudio correlacional (,N, = 930) y una replicación directa (,N, = 913) para analizar 1) el papel mediador de la deshumanización organizacional en la relación entre liderazgo organizacional y estrés en el trabajo y 2) la posible moderación de la identificación con la organización y la frecuencia de la interacción líder-seguidores. Los resultados mostraron que un mayor nivel de liderazgo auténtico predecía un menor nivel de deshumanización organizacional y de estrés en el trabajo. Además, la deshumanización organizacional media en la relación entre liderazgo auténtico y estrés en el trabajo.

It is generally accepted that empathy should be the basis of patient care. However, this ideal may be unrealistic if healthcare professionals suffer adverse effects when engaging in empathy. The aim of this study is to explore the effect of inferring mental states and different components of empathy (perspective-taking; empathic concern; personal distress) in burnout dimensions (emotional exhaustion; depersonalization; personal accomplishment). A total of 184 healthcare professionals participated in the study (23% male, Mage = 44.60; SD = 10.46). We measured participants’ empathy, the inference of mental states of patients, and burnout. Correlation analyses showed that inferring mental states was positively associated with perspective-taking and with empathic concern, but uncorrelated with personal distress. Furthermore, emotional exhaustion was related to greater levels of personal distress and greater levels of inferences of mental states. Depersonalization was associated with greater levels of personal distress and lower levels of empathic concern. Personal accomplishment was associated with the inference of mental states in patients, lower levels of personal distress, and perspective-taking. These results provide a better understanding of how different components of empathy and mental state inferences may preserve or promote healthcare professionals’ burnout.

Work performance is one of the most important dependent variables in Work and Organizational Psychology. The main objective of this paper was to explore the relationships between citizenship performance and task performance measures obtained from different appraisers and their consistency through a seldom-used methodology, intraclass correlation coefficients. Participants were 135 public employees, the total staff in a local government department. Jobs were clustered into job families through a work analysis based on standard questionnaires. A task description technique was used to develop a performance appraisal questionnaire for each job family, with three versions: self-, supervisor-, and peer-evaluation, in addition to a measure of citizenship performance. Only when the self-appraisal bias is controlled, significant correlations appeared between task performance rates. However, intraclass correlations analyses show that only self- (contextual and task) performance measures are consistent, while interrater agreement disappears. These results provide some interesting clues about the procedure of appraisal instrument development, the role of appraisers, and the importance of choosing adequate consistency analysis methods.