Q&A: Helping researchers avoid emotional burnout

How did you approach the interview project?
It was my first job, and, looking back, I was completely unprepared. The job interview was the only time when it was mentioned that it might be hard, but of course if you’re applying for a job, you hide your fears. And you adapt your emotional behaviour to the expectations of your work environment. In an academic setting, that means being a neutral, detached researcher gathering information.

When did you begin to feel distressed?
There’s a cumulative effect. You come back to the office, and the story isn’t over; you have to rehear the whole conversation, and there’s nothing you can do. Then you ask yourself ethical questions about making abstractions of people’s suffering. You’re not really conscious of the emotions it evokes, so it gets at you slowly. I began to have nightmares about getting cancer myself, for example.

Have you adapted your methods?
If I look at my first interview, it’s quite different from how I do it now. I’ve learned a lot. Now I’m doing research again, with a palliative cancer population – meaning people who are dying. It’s hard, but I’m communicating with my supervisor and other researchers about the experience. That’s my way of protecting myself. The most important thing is self-reflection. You have to give yourself feedback all the time, to ask what emotions an interview has evoked.

What do you hope for from the congress?
We have a lot of training in methodological challenges, but we need more collaboration between researchers working on sensitive topics. Last year I organised an event focusing on the stories behind the research. It was an overwhelming success, so this is the second edition. We’ll formulate recommendations and present them to everybody involved in qualitative research, to show the challenges we’re facing.

Photo: Ingimage