Burnout syndrome and coping strategies among professors in the health area

Burnout syndrome is a condition resulting from chronic exposure to interpersonal stressors in the workplace. Faculty in the health field are particularly susceptible to burnout syndrome due to frequent emotional stress.

To identify an association between the dimensions of burnout syndrome and the coping strategies these faculty have adopted.

An observational, analytical and cross-sectional study was conducted in 2021 with 164 faculty from a public university. The Maslach Burnout Inventory and the Brief-Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced were used. The analysis included descriptive statistics and Spearman correlation, using SPSS 16.0.

Emotional exhaustion was high for 54.88% of the sample. Depersonalization scored high for 97.57% of the participants, whereas personal accomplishment was high for 100%. These results are no indication of burnout syndrome, which requires high scores for emotional exhaustion and depersonalization and low scores for personal accomplishment. Active coping, planning, and positive reframing were the most used strategies, which are aimed at solving problems and are considered protective against this condition. Denial, behavioral disengagement, and substance use, which are focused on avoidance and emotion, with potentially negative effects, were the least used. The correlations between the dimensions of burnout syndrome and the coping factors were weak or very weak.

Although burnout syndrome was not identified, the sample was at a high risk of becoming ill due to emotional exhaustion. The correlations between the dimensions of burnout syndrome and the coping factors were weak.