Risk of burnout in radiology technicians in care units of Porto

• Autor(a) principal: Silva, Cristiana Alexandra Vieira da
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Outros Autores: Pereira, José Manuel Rodrigues
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://doi.org/10.25758/set.2251
• topic: Síndroma de Burnout; Stress; Técnicos de radiologia; MBI-HSS; Burnout syndrome; Stress; Radiology technicians; MBI-HSS

Introduction – Burnout is described as a syndrome that involves emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion that results from continued exposure to work stress. It is characterized by high emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and low personal accomplishment. Objective – This study sought to evaluate the risk of burnout in the radiology technicians who work in health care institutions of Porto district, Portugal. Materials and Methods – Burnout levels were estimated using the Maslach Burnout Inventory – Human Services Survey composed of 22 questions. The sample consisted of 122 individuals, from seven public and private health institutions, of which 61.5% were female, with a mean age and standard deviation of 38.3 (±9.3) years. In the relational analysis between the sociodemographic variables and the MBI-HSS results, Pearson's Chi-square or Fisher's Exact tests were used, according to the percentage of cells with a count of less than 5 was less than or greater than 20%, for qualitative variables. ANOVA or Kruskal-Wallis tests were performed on quantitative variables, according to the homogeneity of variance between groups. The interpretation of correlational statistical tests was performed based on the significance level of α=0.05 with a 95% confidence interval.  Results – The analysis of burnout dimensions levels revealed an average of 21.73 (±11.37) for emotional exhaustion, 7.42 (±5.40) for depersonalization, and 32.79 (±8.46) for low personal accomplishment, which is consistent with moderate levels for the first two dimensions, and low for the last. Of this group of technicians, 39.3% and 29.5% exhibit high levels of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, respectively. Low personal accomplishment is experienced by 48.4% of respondents. Discussion – Women are more affected by emotional exhaustion (51%), as well as professionals with professional activity between 11 and 30 years. In services composed of 20 to 40 technicians, a higher level of emotional exhaustion is observed (63%). Most respondents agreed that work affects their self-esteem, family, and social life, particularly in a negative way, which subsequently relates to some high values of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, and low levels of personal accomplishment. Conclusion – The occurrence of burnout in radiology technicians is relevant and these results alert the need to intervene to improve the working conditions, continuous training, and implementation of emotional support measures of health professionals in order to guarantee the quality of the service provided to users and personal well-being of these professionals.