Burnout Syndrome in Neonatology Fellows in a Hospital Center

Situational Analysis and Monitoring, Period 2021-2023

Abstract

Introduction: Residents and postgraduates are a fundamental part of hospital services. Burnout Syndrome is defined as physical and emotional exhaustion resulting from chronic exposure to stress in the workplace. The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI-HSS) is an instrument designed and validated to evaluate it.
The objective of this study is to determine the prevalence of Burnout Syndrome in our service and to compare it among students of different generations to then implement mechanisms that allow monitoring, early detection and identification of modifiable factors.
Materials and methods: Cross-sectional, descriptive, observational study carried out in April 2021 through the Maslach Burnout Inventory - Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS) test to carry out a diagnosis of the situation. This study will continue with a 2nd stage consisting of the application of the test every 4 months, which we will not develop in this work. The target population is all residents and postgraduates in the neonatology specialty at a tertiary level hospital. The MBI-HSS questionnaire and a general questionnaire were applied to characterize the population.
Results: A total of 22 participants were included, of which 13 presented high scores of emotional exhaustion, 9 obtained an altered value of depersonalization and 9 presented low scores of personal fulfillment. Six participants, 27%, presented altered scores for the three variables.
Conclusions: A high prevalence of Burnout was evidenced, being 27% in the total population. Statistically significant differences were found for the items “depersonalization” and “personal fulfillment” between the different years of the specialty, with higher depersonalization scores and lower personal fulfillment scores in the second and third years. This constitutes an alarm element, which requires immediate modification of the operation and activities.