BURNOUT SYNDROME IN ICU NURSING STAFF

INTRODUCTION. Burnout syndrome was defined as a whole of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment, that may occur among individuals who work in direct touch with people, and that may lead to a decreased working yield. Aim of the study was to analyze burnout syndrome within nursing staff working in Intensive Care Units (ICUs), and to compare nurses with an high and a low level of burnout. METHODS. We studied a population of 883 nurses working in ICUs, distributed in 79 Italian hospitals. We asked them to fill in a form including: 1) general data and his/her work environment, 2) different evaluation standardized scales: the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, divided in anxiety (HAD A) and depression (HAD D) status – 0-10 “non pathologic”, 11-21 “pathologic” –; the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (S.T.A.I.), divided in acute anxiety (Y-1) and chronic anxiety (Y-2) status; the Maslach Burnout Inventory – (M.B.I.) divided in Emotional Exhaustion (EE), Depersonalization (DP) and Personal Accomplishment (PA). High level of burnout was defined as a value of EE 27, DP 10 and PA 33, while low level was defined as a value of EE 18, DP 5 and PA 40. The comparison between the two groups was performed by t-test and z-test; statistical significance was accepted as p < 0.05. Results are expressed as percentage or as mean  SD. RESULTS. Among our population, 12.5% of nurses resulted to have a low level of burnout, and 10% to have an high level of burnout, while 77.5% of nurses presented at least one variables of burnout above low level. In nursing staff with high level of burnout, compared with nurses with low level of burnout, we found: an higher percentage of nurses working in ICU for more than 2 years (89% vs 68%), an higher mean of intubated patients (5.7 ±2.9 vs 3.8 ±2.8), an higher percentage of pathologic anxiety (42% vs 3%) and pathologic depression (14% vs 0%), and an higher mean of S.T.A.I. Y-1 (45.4 ±11.7 vs 30.4 ±5.4) and S.T.A.I. Y-2 (46.7 ±9.1 vs 31.4 ±7.0). Moreover, in nurses with high level of burnout EE was correlated with S.T.A.I. Y-1 (r = 0.54, p < 0.001) and with HAD A (r = 0.51, p < 0.001), and HAD A was correlated with HAD D (r = 0.63, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION. 1) Burnout syndrome may be an important phenomenon within ICU nursing staff. 2) Some features of working environment, general and psychological personal data may be associated with the degree of burnout.