Presence of Professional Burnout Syndrome in COVID-19 Care Areas

Abstract

Background: burnout or professional burnout syndrome manifests itself in workers, with a progressive loss of energy until reaching exhaustion, symptoms of anxiety, depression, job demotivation and aggressiveness. Objective: to describe the characteristics of professional burnout syndrome in doctors in the COVID-19 care area. Method: a descriptive and cross-sectional study was carried out. The sample was made up of the 55 doctors who worked in the COVID-19 care area of the Hospital General Puyo, in Ecuador during the year 2021. The voluntary nature to participate in the study and that they had worked in that area and in that period. The sociodemographic variables analyzed were: age, seniority at work, and the instrument used was the Maslach Burnout Inventor questionnaire. Data was collected online using Google forms, tabulated in Microsoft Excel, and analyzed using the SPSS statistical package. Results: the age range between 30 and 40 years predominated without difference in terms of sex. The highest percentage according to work seniority is occupied by the range between 3 and 10 years. More than a third of the professionals developed some symptom related to burnout syndrome. Of the 20 workers with the presence of burnout, 13 belong to the age group of 31 to 40 years. Conclusions: the search for alternatives that guarantee better working conditions will contribute to reducing the physical and emotional exhaustion of health professionals.

Keywords

• burnout
• agotamiento
• desgaste profesional
• despersonalización