[Comparative study of burnout in Intensive Care and Emergency Care nursing staff].
OBJECTIVE
To assess and compare the burnout level between Intensive Care Unit and Emergency Unit, and study its association with the sociodemographic and work characteristics of the professionals surveyed.


METHODS
Cross-sectional, descriptive study. Emplacement. Intensive Care Unit of the university hospital Morales Meseguer, Murcia-Spain. STUDIED SAMPLE: 97 nursing professionals: 55 professionals belong to the Emergency Department, and 42 professionals belong to the Intensive Care Department.


METHODS
Two evaluation tools were used: a sociodemographic and work survey, and the Maslach Burnout Inventory, 1986. Quantitative variables expressed as mean +/- SD compared with the Student's T test and qualitative variables compared with the chi2 test.


METHODS
SPSS 12.0(c).


RESULTS
The comparative analysis of the burnout dimensions shows that emotional exhaustion level is significantly higher in the intensive care service than in the emergency one (25.45 +/- 11.15 vs 22.09 +/- 10.99) p < 0.05. The rest of burnout dimensions do not show significant differences between both departments. The masculine gender obtains a higher score in the depersonalization dimension of burnout (10.12 +/- 5.38) than female one (6.7 +/- 5.21) p < 0.01. There is greater vulnerability to emotional exhaustion among the professional group with more than 15 years of work experience (F = 3.592; p = 0.031).


CONCLUSIONS
The burnout levels are moderate to high among the nursing professionals studied. A total of 5.15% of the sample studied achieves a high score in the three dimensions of the burnout syndrome. The intensive care professionals are the most vulnerable to suffering high levels of emotional exhaustion, and the masculine gender is more susceptible to depersonalization attitudes.
Ríos Risquez
M I
MI
Servicio de Urgencias. Hospital Morales Meseguer. Murcia. España. maribelrios7@yahoo.es
Godoy Fernández
C
C
Peñalver Hernández
F
F
Alonso Tovar
A R
AR
López Alcaraz
F
F
López Romera
A
A
Garnés González
S
S
Salmerón Saura
E
E
López Real
M D
MD
Ruiz Sánchez
R
R
Simón Domingo
P
P
Manzanera Nicolás
J L
JL
Menchón Almagro
M A
MA
Liébanas Bellón
R
R
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002055:Burnout, Professional / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003422:Critical Care; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D016529:Emergency Nursing; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009729:Nursing