Organizational climate, job satisfaction, and burnout in nursing workers

Characterized by high levels of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization and reduced professional accomplishment, burnout syndrome has been a major cause of psychic illness in nursing workers, with a serious impact on the quality of services and on patient safety.

To analyze the correlation between organizational climate, job satisfaction, and burnout in nursing workers.

This is a cross-sectional study with a sample of 534 Brazilian nursing workers. We used the Organizational Climate Scale for Health Organizations, the Job Satisfaction Questionnaire (S20/23), and the Maslach Burnout Inventory. An analytical descriptive analysis of the data was performed using relative and absolute frequencies, mean, standard deviation, minimum, maximum, and correlation test between the variables.

Organizational climate and job satisfaction were evaluated as regular. With regard to burnout, moderate levels of emotional exhaustion, low levels of depersonalization, and high levels of professional accomplishment were observed. A strong positive correlation was found between job satisfaction and organizational climate; in addition to a moderate negative correlation between emotional exhaustion and both organizational climate and job satisfaction, and a moderate negative correlation between depersonalization and job satisfaction.

Organizational climate and job satisfaction had a negative correlation with burnout dimensions, representing possible protective factors.