Burnout syndrome in nurses and psychiatric staff

Introduction: Burnout is a complex psychoemotional construct defined by three dimensions: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and feeling of diminished personal achievement. It occurs in professionals who work in direct contact with other people. Healthcare professions are classified as the most endangered, with employees in psychiatric institutions being at the top of the pyramid of risk for the development of professional burnout. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of job burnout among psychiatric nurses, as well as to examine the correlation of sociodemographic factors with burnout syndrome. Methodology: A non-experimental cross-sectional correlation study was conducted on a sample of 70 nurses employed at the Institute of Mental Health in Belgrade. The study instruments were the Maslach Burnout Inventory - Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS), and the sociodemographic data questionnaire specially designed for this research. Results and discussion: The results show that 34.3% of in the ob-served sample show moderate or severe symptoms of burnout in the domain of emotional exhaustion, in 14.3% of them was registered moderate or severe burnout manifestations in the domain of depersonalization, and 68.6% show of study participants showed moderate or high level of burnout in the personal achievement domain. Correlation analysis of respondents' sociodemographic characteristics with burnout manifestations confirms that depersonalization is statistically significantly associated with mar-ital status (p=0.036). In addition, there is a correlation between emotional exhaustion and education level (ch2-9,431; p=0.051), age of respondents (ch2 =17,802; p=0.023) and length of service (ch2=17,213; p=0.028). Conclusion: Considering the individual and social consequences of job burnout, it is important to identify risk groups among nurses employed in psychiatry institutions, in order to preserve and improve mental health, as well as improve the quality of provided health services.