Burnout syndrome in health professionals who work at Palliative Care Units in Madrid

Aim: to study the prevalence of burnout syndrome in health professionals working in palliative care units within Madrid region's Public and semi-public health system. Methods: a cross-sectional descriptive Study of home care medical and nursing staff -- medical support team (ESAD). and also the Spanish Association Against Cancer (AECC) and palliative care services from public and semi-public hospitals. By means of simple random sampling 60 Subjects were selected from a total group of 193 people. They were sent a questionnaire by mail in February 2005, the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI as validated in the Spanish language. MBI has three Sub-stages: emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalitazion (DP), and personal accomplishment (PA). Not only demographic but also professional variables were taken into account. Results: response rate was,as 75% (445 out of 50 subjects): 57.8%, showed low emotional exhaustion. 68.9% had low depersonalization. and 62.2% reported high personal accomplishment. Moreover, one third of participants (15) conform to the pattern of low burnout level in the three different substages, that is, low CE, low DP, and high RP. Conclusions: in comparison to other Studies in our Country, Madrid's professional palliative care staff exhibited low burnout levels.