Supporting in grief and burnout of the nursing team from pediatric units in Chilean hospitals.

Paula Vega Vega,Natalie Santibáñez Galdamez,Antonia Sateler Villanueva,Camila Ferrada Molina,Jose Bustos Melo,Rina González Rodriguez,Javiera Spicto Orellana

doi:10.1590/s1980-220x2017004303289

Abstract

Objective To know the levels of Burnout Syndrome and perception of grief support in nursing teams of oncology and pediatric intensive care in public hospitals in Chile. Method A study of descriptive cross-sectional design. The Maslach Burnout Inventory and the Grief Support Health Care Scale were applied to university-level and technical nursing professionals between March and November 2015. An analysis to compare the means was performed with use of the Student's t-test, and the level of significance was set at 5%. Results The study included 153 professionals. Results show 4% of professionals have Burnout Syndrome (BS) and 89% are at risk of having it. Oncology professionals are at higher risk as they present higher levels of emotional exhaustion and lower levels of personal fulfillment. Half of professionals have a high level of perception of grief support, which is greater in the oncology team. Conclusion Professionals working in pediatric oncology units are at increased risk of Burnout Syndrome and grief support may be a mediating factor in this process.

Highlights

The phenomenon of death has become relevant within health teams in the last decades, in units providing care for children with chronic diseases
The present study showed differences in the perception of grief support according to gender; women feel more recognized in relation to the loss of a patient, which is a situation observed in studies in the area of adults[26] and pediatrics[8,27]
The findings of this study led to the conclusion that professionals working in high complexity children’s units, especially in oncology services, may present a higher risk of Burnout Syndrome, mainly due to emotional exhaustion and less personal achievement

Summary

Introduction

The phenomenon of death has become relevant within health teams in the last decades, in units providing care for children with chronic diseases. Death is conceived as a loss determined by the affective bonds generated by the long time of direct contact with patients[2,3] This feeling of loss coupled with a perception of providing less effective care cause more emotional exhaustion on staff[4] that is manifested both in physical and mental health problems[5]. There is the long contact time usually maintained with patients and relatives that can reach a workload of 60 hours a week[7] All these situations facilitate the establishment of strong emotional bonds leading to feelings of loss that could be perceived as a grieving process[1,8]. When such experiences are sustained over time, psycho-emotional malaise results in decreased work performance, increase of work leave for mental health problems, and increased unintentional errors and/or omissions, which can lead to professional exhaustion, especially in those with low training in coping with the grieving process[10,11]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion