[Relationship of οccupational stress parameters with burn-out and perceived stress]

One of the major problems concerning mental healthcare professionals is burn-out as a set of symptoms associated with chronic stress that encompasses three dimensions: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment. Research has indicated that asylums are stressful environments where nurses are vulnerable to burn-out and occupational stress. There is a tendency for research studies to investigate causes of stress and ways of coping, but few studies, particularly in recent years, have considered burn-out and occupational stress among care staff at Greek asylum. Investigating possible correlation between occupational stress and burn-out is important for implementing appropriate interventional programmes, in order to reduce burn-out among healthcare staff while increasing employee productivity and morale. The aim of this study was the analysis of correlations between burn-out and occupational stress of care staff at Leros Psychiatric Hospital. Forty-nine employees were assessed by Maslach's Burn-out Inventory, the Scale of Job Content, the Perceived Stress Scale and sociodemographic questionnaire data. Higher wages are associated with older workers (x2=7.638, p=0.022), and years at work (x2=10.094, p=0.006). Men have more years of work on average at the asylum than women (t=3.605, p<0.001), and total working time (t=4.914, p<0.001). Emotional exhaustion is related positively to job demands (r=0.484, p<0.001) and psychophysiological stress (r=0.381, p=0.006) and negatively to support from colleagues (r=-0.332, p=0.019) and superiors (r=-0.296, p=0.038). A significant correlation was noted between lack of personal accomplish ment, depression (r=-0.283, p=0.048) and lack of job satisfaction (r=-0.430). We also found a significant negative correlation between depersonalization and support from superiors (r=-0.300, p=0.036). Also, employees who experienced high levels of perceived stress reported higher levels of depression (r=0.358, p=0.011), sleep problems (r=0.469, p<0.001), psychosomatic (r=0.381, p=0.006) and complex psychophysiological stress (r=0.525, p<0.001). A positive correlation has been revealed between job content and burn-out in their three dimensions such us emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and personal accomplishment. Job content is positively associated with the three burn-out dimensions making it necessary to address these issues through staff education in stress management.