Burnout in the intensive care unit professionals

Abstract

Background: Professional burnout has been widely explored in health care. We conducted this study in our hospital intensive care unit (ICU) in United States to explore the burnout among nurses and respiratory therapists (RT). Materials and Methods: A survey consisting of two parts was used to assess burnout. Part 1 addressed the demographic information and work hours. Part 2 addressed the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Service Survey. Results: The analysis included 213 total subjects; Nurses 151 (71%) and RT 62 (29%). On the emotional exhaustion (EE) scale, 54% scored "Moderate" to "High" and 40% scored "Moderate" to "High" on the depersonalization (DP) scale. Notably 40.6% scored "Low" on personal accomplishment (PA) scale. Conclusion: High level of EE, DP and lower PAs were seen among two groups of health care providers in the ICUs.