Abstract
This study aims to evaluate the prevalence of Burnout Syndrome among professionals who care for elderly and chronically ill patients and the relationship between the appearance of Burnout and sociodemographic and job related variables. The sample consisted of 265 employees who worked directly with the elderly and chronically ill. It was composed mostly of women, 94.3%. The average age was 43 (SD = 10.2). We made use of the following instruments: a sociodemographic questionnaire and the Maslach Burnout Inventory—HSS (Semedo, 2009). The results show that 19.6% of participants have high rates of emotional exhaustion, 4.9% present high depersonalization, and 2.6% experience low personal accomplishment. Disease severity and support services influence personal accomplishment. Age proved to be a predictor of the emotional exhaustion variable, while the length of service at an institution variable not only proved to be a predictor of emotional exhaustion, but also of personal accomplishment. The prevention of Burnout Syndrome constitutes one of the major challenges for occupational health care providers to the elderly and chronically ill.
Highlights
The bankruptcy of social and health policies, as well as demographic aging, has contributed to a growing de-How to cite this paper: Vicente, C
While the results presented by Gomes, Cruz & Cabanelas (2009) for the depersonalization (4%) and personal accomplishment (1%) dimensions don’t differ from previous studies, the rate of emotional exhaustion (15%) was more pronounced
The prevalence of burnout syndrome in our sample was lower than that reported by most studies
Summary
The bankruptcy of social and health policies, as well as demographic aging, has contributed to a growing de-How to cite this paper: Vicente, C. The objective for social workers is to help people in physically, mentally or socially vulnerable situations In addition to these demands, care providers are further confronted with a lack of social recognition, and a scarcity of economic and/or human resources, which would otherwise allow them to adequately respond to the situations with which they are faced. On many occasions, these professionals feel that the work they do doesn’t coincide with their original expectations regarding their profession and, that many times, they carry out roles and tasks they feel unprepared for, which may lead to a certain frustration (Barría, 2003; Lyod & King, 2004). This state of affairs may lead to the onset of psychosocial risks, namely an increase in stress, and to serious deterioration of mental and physical health, with particular emphasis on burnout syndrome
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