Root Cause Analysis of a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Failure in a Public Transport Communication System

A printed circuit board (PCB) is an essential element for practical circuit applications and its failure can inflict large financial costs and even safety concerns, especially if the PCB failure occurs prematurely and unexpectedly. Understanding the failure modes and even the failure mechanisms of a PCB failure are not sufficient to ensure the same failure will not occur again in subsequent operations with different batches of PCBs. The identification of the root cause is crucial to prevent the reoccurrence of the same failure. In this work, a step-by-step approach from customer returned and inventory reproduced boards to the root cause identification is described for an actual industry case where the failure is a PCB burn-out. The failure mechanism is found to be a conductive anodic filament (CAF) even though the PCB is CAF-resistant. The root cause is due to PCB de-penalization. A reliability verification to assure the effectiveness of the corrective action according to the identified root cause is shown to complete the case study. This work shows that a CAF-resistant PCB does not necessarily guarantee no CAF and PCB processes can render its CAF resistance ineffective.

Use of protocol-driven medication refills by pharmacists decreases rheumatologist in-basket work and improves rheumatologist satisfaction

Burn-out among US physicians has been on the rise in the past few decades. Similarly, rheumatologists in the Geisinger Health System have experienced professional dissatisfaction through significant administrative burden and in-basket work. We embedded pharmacists into our rheumatology team in 2019 with the aim of reallocating medication refills to pharmacists, trained professionals in this domain, to help reduce physician workload and burn-out and increase satisfaction. Protocol-driven medication refill parameters per the American College of Rheumatology guidelines and new refill workflows for disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) and non-DMARDs were created for use by our rheumatology pharmacists. Monthly data on medication refill volume and time saved for rheumatologists were collected from 1 January 2019 to 31 March 2021. Statistical analysis was completed via Shewhart p-charts. The volume of refills by rheumatologists decreased by 73% and the time saved per month for all the rheumatologists increased to 41.5 hours within 6 months. Physicians’ feedback was obtained via anonymous electronic surveys preintervention and postintervention. The statistical difference between the presurveys and postsurveys was calculated via two-tailed unpaired t-testing. It demonstrated reduced burn-out and improved workplace satisfaction. This study showed that the integration of rheumatology pharmacists into our practice can help improve the work life of the rheumatologists. It is important for physicians’ well-being to practice at the top of their scope and achieve work–life balance.

Relationships Between Mental Workload, Burnout, and Job Performance

Mental workload is a popular topic for ergonomics, psychology, and organizational behavior-related studies. Difficulties and differences in defining and measurement of mental workload engage the attention of scholars to the concept. Furthermore, the importance of mental workload on performance and burn out increases attention to the topic for empirical studies. In this chapter, the authors reveal the relations between mental workload, burnout, and job performance. Data were obtained from 144 academicians in Turkey. Results demonstrated that mental workload has a 1) positive impact on burn out and 2) negative impact on job performance of academicians. Moreover, it was found that burn out and job performance are negatively correlated. Finally, findings reported that there are differences among some demographic variables in accordance with mental workload, burn out, and job performance.

FEATURES OF PROFESSIONAL BURN OUT SYNDROME IN NURSES

The article gives the definition and characteristics of the syndrome of professional burnout. The data of a sociological survey of nurses of the department to identify the syndrome of professional burnout in nurses and determine its phase are presented. A direct correlation was revealed between the length of service and the phase of the syndrome; work experience, phase of the syndrome and the formation of a tendency to bad habits. The necessity of prevention of professional burnout syndrome at its first symptoms in nurses has been determined

Influence of medical trainee sleep pattern (chronotype) on burn-out and satisfaction with work schedules: a multicentre observational study

BackgroundMedical trainees’ work schedule is designed to cover duties without consideration of differences in circadian rhythms during a 24-hour period (chronotype).ObjectiveTo explore chronotype variation among medical trainees and understand its association with burn-out and schedule satisfaction.MethodsIn a multicentre observational study, we conducted two surveys between 1 October 2018 and 1 April 2019. Trainees from nine centres across the USA participated. We measured burn-out using Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), and trainee chronotype using the Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ).Results324 (32%) out of 1012 responded to our survey. Participants were 51% female and had a mean age of 30.8 years. Most participants had an intermediate MEQ type (65%). A large proportion of participants had burn-out on at least one of three tested MBI scales (62%); 5% of participants had burn-out on all three MBI scales. More participants with evening MEQ type had burn-out (66%) compared with morning MEQ type (55%), however, the results were not statically significant (p=0.294). Overall satisfaction with work shifts was 6.5 (95% CI 6.3 to 6.7), with higher satisfaction with day shift 7.7 (95% CI 7.5 to 7.9) and lowest satisfaction with overnight 24-hour call 3.5 (95% CI 3.2 to 3.9). Satisfaction was lower in trainees with burn-out 6.0 (95% CI 5.7 to 6.4), (p<0.001). In the follow-up survey, burn-out was present in at least one scale in 64% compared with 60% of respondents in the initial survey.ConclusionBurn-out is prevalent among medical trainees. Improving alignment between trainee preferences may improve performance, reduce human errors and burn-out.