Legal means to prevent professional burnout of medical workers

The work of medical workers is characterized by significant specifics related to harmful working conditions, increased psycho-emotional stress, and special responsibility for people's lives and health. However, to date, the Labor Code of the Russian Federation contains only one article that establishes some features of regulating © С.Ю. Головина, 2025 Головина С.Ю. Правовые средства предотвращения профессионального выгорания the work of medical workers, while entire chapters are devoted to other workers. In this regard, the question is raised about the need to supplement the Labor Code of the Russian Federation in order to improve labor legislation in terms of regulating the work of medical workers. One of the most serious occupational risks of medical professionals is professional burnout. The consequence of this phenomenon is professional deformation, characterized by a decrease in motivation for medical work, a gradual disappearance of empathy, a manifestation of callousness and even cynicism towards patients and their relatives, and a deterioration in the working environment in the team. The article examines the causes of professional burnout among medical workers and identifies the factors that determine such professional burnout, which are responsible for labor legislation. In particular, these include shortcomings in the organization of labor rationing, causing serious work overload and time constraints. Strict time regulations for certain work activities, such as patient admissions, hinder the quality of medical care. Unclear legal regulation of liability, for example, the uncertainty of the concept of medical error, leads to uncertainty about the correctness of the strategy of providing medical care and carrying out medical procedures. The unsatisfactory level of remuneration for medical workers causes a sense of social insecurity and insecurity about the future. Violation of workers' labor rights, including discrimination in the social and labor sphere based on gender, age or other grounds, generates numerous labor disputes, which also creates a stressful environment for doctors. Legal means of preventing or overcoming professional burnout of medical workers are proposed: improving the rationing of working hours in order to reduce excessive workloads on medical workers; strengthening guarantees for the exercise of the right to rest by establishing new types of rest time, in particular, long-term leave (by analogy with teaching staff); introducing special rehabilitation programs for medical workers with guarantees for the preservation of places of work and average earnings for the period of such rehabilitation; improving the organization of work processes through the rational distribution of work responsibilities; the formation of a fair wage system and the achievement of a wage level that ensures a decent existence not only for the employee himself, but also for his family. The corporate practice of establishing special measures aimed at neutralizing the effects of stressful situations at work is presented. The author declares no conflicts of interests.

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