Burnout syndrome in staff of the Yumbel Hospital

Abstract

Aims:
• To Determine the prevalence of Burnout syndrome in the staff of the Yumbel Hospital.
• To Relate the presence of Burnout syndrome with sociodemographic variables.
• To Determine the presence of the most frequent symptoms that suggest a tendency to suffer Burnout.
Methods: Transverse and descriptive study. The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) was applied to all physicians
(6) and non physician staff (16), corresponding to 15 women and 7 men, belonging to the Yumbel Hospital in October 2004. Results organized in tables of distributions and of associations.
Results:
• Average age was 37 years.
• 59,1% of the staff were married (4 separated).
• 14 had less than 10 years of career, 2 had between 10 and 20 and 6 had more than 20 years of practice of profession.
• There wasn’t Burnout, but there was a tendency in 22,7% of the staff.
• 59,1% of the staff felt tired at the end of the working day, 40,9% felt fatigue when waking up in the morning
and 31,8% thought they were working to much. All these findings were more frequent in women.
• The closest sociodemographic profile to the diagnosis of tendency to develop Burnout was: Female, age
between 24-40 years, single and less than 10 years of practice of profession.
Conclusions: The results didn’t evidence the presence of Burnout; there was a tendency to develop it in a meaningful percentage that had a defined sociodemographic pattern that resembles the one presented in other studies. Regardless of not finding Burnout, there were symptoms that showed a tendency to a work overload, suggesting the need for early intervention to prevent work related stress.