Quality of working life and burnout among nursing staff in Intensive Care Units

This descriptive-correlational and cross-sectional study aimed to evaluate the quality of working life (QWL) and the presence of burnout among nursing professionals working at Intensive Care Units. The sample was composed of 53 nursing professionals from a university hospital located in the city of Londrina-PR, Brazil. Three instruments were used for data collection: socio-demographic and professional characterization, Visual Analogue Scale for QWL and Maslach Burnout Inventory. Data was collected from April to August, 2009. Among the participants, most were auxiliary nurses (52.8%), women (66.0%) and married (67.9%). The average age was of 42.4 years. Regarding assessment of QWL, the average score obtained for the total sample was 71.1 (SD=15.5), showing that workers were satisfied with their QWL. The average for Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization and Personal Accomplishment dimensions was 11.4 (SD=7.7), 4.6 (SD=4.1) and 25.0 (SD=5.9), respectively. The QWL for the total sample showed significant association only with Emotional Exhaustion (p=0.000).