Abstract
OBJECTIVES: to describe the social and work characteristics of the nursing staff at a tertiary hospital in the Public Health Service of Andalucía, to assess the degree of professional professional burnout and job satisfaction of those professionals and to study the possible relation between the professional burnout variables and the stress and job satisfaction levels on the one hand and social and employment variables on the other. METHOD: descriptive and cross-sectional study in a sample of 258 baccalaureate and auxiliary nurses. As research instruments, an original and specific questionnaire was used to collect social and employment variables, the Maslach Burnout Inventory, the Nursing Stress Scale and the Font-Roja questionnaire. Descriptive, inferential statistics and multivariate analysis were applied. RESULTS: average scores were found for professional stress and satisfaction, corresponding to 44,23 and 65,46 points, respectively. As regards professional burnout, an average score was found on the emotional exhaustion subscale; a high score for depersonalization and a low score for professional accomplishment. Studies are needed to identify the scores on these subscales in health organizations and to produce knowledge on their interrelations.
Highlights
As a consequences of the changes in the organizations and of the current globalization processes, the exposure to psychosocial factors in the professional sphere has been more frequent and intense(1)
The study subjects were nurses or auxiliary nurses who worked at the hospital, who had worked at the service where they were active in care for more than one year and who were active at the time of the data collection
The mean scores on the professional burnout dimensions situated the sample at a medium level on the emotional exhaustion subscale; a high level for depersonalization and a low level for personal accomplishment
Summary
As a consequences of the changes in the organizations and of the current globalization processes, the exposure to psychosocial factors in the professional sphere has been more frequent and intense(1). When these are adverse to the development of the professional activity and the individual’s quality of life, they turn into a higher level of stress for the professional(2). In the last two decades, there has been a growing concern with the effects of stress on the nursing professionals(3), which represent the most numerous group of health professionals who deliver care to patients 24 hours per day(4). The individual response to these situations can be psychological, including symptoms like anxiety, irritation and depression, or psychosomatic, involving headaches, nausea and sleep problems, with possible negative impacts for patient safety and for the quality of care(8)
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