Abstract

SILVA, Melani et al. Burnout and Engagement among health professionals from interior: north of Portugal. Psic., Saúde & Doenças [online]. 2015, vol.16, n.3, pp.286-299. ISSN 1645-0086.

Health professionals are workers with motivation and dedication to help others. However, they are a group where occupational stress is high, because they deal with others’ suffering, being often forgotten in what concerns their occupational health. Recent literature investigated work stress, especially when this becomes already in burnout, as well as the engagement of health professionals. Studies have the awareness that the decrease of the well-being of these professionals may have serious consequences in the care they provide to users, and in the quality of the institutional services. In Portugal, the research about this topic collects data generally in health institutions of main cities, rarely knowing the reality of the professionals working at outlying areas, like interior-north of Portugal. This study aims to know engagement and burnout levels of a sample of 258 health professionals (doctors, nurses, radiologists, physiotherapists and psychologists) of interior-North of Portugal, as well as the relationship between these two variables, using Maslach Burnout Inventory and Work Enthusiasm Utrech Scale. Results indicated high levels of engagement in all dimensions, while on burnout low levels of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization were found, inferior than at littoral regions. Correlations between burnout and engagement, although significant, suggest that these two concepts are independent and not the opposite of an emotional continuous. Engagement explained 12% to 29% of burnout, while socio-demographic variables explained 2% to 8% of burnout.

Keywords : health personnel; burnout; engagement; occupational health; interior-north.

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