Síndrome de burnout en unidades de cuidados intensivos

[Is subjective well-being perceived by non-health care workers different from that perceived by nurses? Relation with personality and resilience]

Subjective well-being (SWB), usually called 'happiness', is influenced directly by psychological factors. Personality and resilience (capacity of recover from adversity) are included among these factors. Empirical evidence has demonstrated that resilience is an essential and inherent characteristic for the nursery staff. This study has aimed to analyze personality factors (including resilience) related with SWB (satisfaction with life, positive and negative affect) in a nursery staff sample (n=59) of intensive care and cardiological units, and a non-health care workers sample (n=50) mainly made up of government employees and teachers. Multiple regression analyses showed that SWB was associated with more resilience and less neuroticism in the nursery staff. Extraversion and conscientiousness (positively related), and neuroticism (negatively related) were the significant predictors of SWB in the non-health care workers group. Finally, mediational analyses revealed that resilience measured the relationships between extraversion (total mediation) and neuroticism (partial mediation) with SWB in the nursery staff group, but not in the group of non-health care workers. The results show the importance of resilience for nursery staff of intensive care units, since they are constantly exposed to human suffering and to a continually adverse occupational environment. Likewise, the discussion stresses that resilience is a means for nursing staff to cope with the occupational stress and that resilient nurses are a crucial element in our health care system.

[Burnout syndrome in an obstetrics and gynaecology management unit]

OBJECTIVE

To determine the prevalence of the Burnout Syndrome among the members of an Obstetrics and Gynaecology Unit.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Cross-sectional study using an anonymous questionnaire and socio-Spanish version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory.

RESULTS

The survey was answered by 21 doctors, 11 matrons, 14 DUE, 22 nurses, 2 administrative officers and 1 watchman, with a response rate of 43.2%. Average values were 20.1 points for the emotional exhaustion, depersonalization 7.6 points to 42.1 points and for personal fulfilment. We found higher values of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization in the group of doctors in relation to other professional groups.

CONCLUSION

We believe that 33.8% is an alarmingly high level of emotional exhaustion in the members of the present study, and this level is even higher in medical specialists (52.3%). Only the 2.8% of the professionals had high values in the three sub-scales.