[Burnout among Spanish pediatricians specialized in intensive care].
BACKGROUND
The burnout syndrome is characterized by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and decrease or loss of the feeling of personal accomplishment. It is frequent in the helping professions where an intense involvement with people needing assistance occurs. In its origin, the work policy factors seem to be important.


METHODS
68 pediatric intensive care physicians of the Intensive Care Section of the Spanish Pediatric Association participate in the study. A general questionnaire and a Spanish version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory was used. The statistical analysis includes: a descriptive analysis, the Student t-test, and the analysis of the variance.


RESULTS
Burnout scores were in the average range (41,9 +/- 7,5), with a more important grade in the decrease of personal accomplishment dimension (18,9 +/- 3,5). The 55,9% of the responders attributed to the conflict with the managing policy, their work unsatisfaction and the 58,8% planned to leave the job in the future.


CONCLUSIONS
The importance of burnout and its three dimensions in the health professions and in the hospital setting is stated. It is enhanced that even though the burnout scores were in the average range more than half of the population studied were considering to leave their work in the future.
Bustinza Arriortua
A
A
Unidad de Cuidados Intensivos Pediátricos. Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón, Madrid.
López-Herce Cid
J
J
Carrillo Alvarez
A
A
Vigil Escribano
M D
MD
de Lucas García
N
N
Panadero Carlavilla
E
E
D000328:Adult; D002055:Burnout, Professional / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003422:Critical Care; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010372:Pediatrics; D015995:Prevalence; D013030:Spain