Burnout syndrome among Mexican hospital nursery staff.
OBJECTIVE
To identify frequency and related factors to burnout syndrome in the nursing staff at a specialty hospital in the Mexican state of Guanajuato.


METHODS
A prolective, analytical cross-sectional study was carried out. In 236 randomly selected nurses, a 35-item questionnaire proposed by Cyberia Shink was applied in a blind survey. Seniority, workplace, shift and kind of service, work category, age and marital status were investigated for a link with burnout syndrome.


RESULTS
Mean age of nursing personnel was 33+/-11.93 years with 13+/-7.2 years of seniority; 95 (40%) workers showed emotional exhaustion, 78 (32%) felt dehumanized, 148 (63%) had lost interest in their work, and 120 (50%) reported general exhaustion. From the studied nursing personnel, 92 (39%) showed burnout syndrome-compatible data. There were statistical differences with nurses without burnout syndrome age >33 years (p=0.001), seniority (p=0.05), and workplace (p=0.05), but not with kind of medical service (p=0.36), shift (p=0.86), and work category (p=0.96). Questionnaire validity in agreement with alpha Cronbach test was 0.7496. Relation between professional attrition and work environment was r=0.738.


CONCLUSIONS
The instrument can be relied upon to identify burnout syndrome and is considered as acceptable. Age, seniority, and workplace are factors linked to nursing staff with burnout syndrome-compatible data. Employers, managers, and supervisors of health care services must promote preventive actions for burnout syndrome to synchronize present work conditions in nursing staff with their biologic characteristics.
Occupational Health Nursery Coordination, Guanajuato Delegation, Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, Mexico City.
Laura Silvia
LS
Cabrera Gutiérrez
Pablo
P
López Rojas
Santiago
S
Salinas Tovar
José Guadalupe
JG
Ochoa Tirado
Irma Araceli
IA
Marín Cotoñieto
Luis
L
Haro García
D000328:Adult; D002055:Burnout, Professional; D005260:Female; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D008800:Mexico / Q000453:epidemiology; D009726:Nurses / Q000523:psychology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013577:Syndrome