Trends in burnout syndrome and emotional factors: an assessment of anesthesiologists in Southern Brazil, 2012

Burnout syndrome (BOS) is the result of chronic stress at work, and is characterized by emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalization (DP), and low professional accomplishment. Anesthesiologyis a stressful profession. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of burnout as well as the sociodemographic and working characteristics associated with this syndrome’s emotional factors, in anesthesiologists from Southern Brazil. We assessed burnout severity, depressive symptoms, and self-esteem using the Maslach burnout inventory, the Beck depression inventory, and the Rosenberg self-esteem scale, respectively. Of the 198 anesthesiologists included in this study, 48.7% were positive for burnout, 26.9% for EE, 41.3% for DP and 32.7% for low personal accomplishment. Trends in BOS was associated with a younger age, difficulty to conciliate family and work demands, low self-esteem, and depressive symptoms.