[Prevalence of burnout syndrome in nursing staff in a large hospital in south of Brazil].

Burnout syndrome is a chronic adaptive disorder that affects workers and is characterized by three forms of psychological distress: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a sense of low personal fulfillment. A cross-sectional quantitative design was used to apply questionnaires including socio-cultural data and the Maslach Burnout Inventory in 151 nurses and nurse technicians, representing 54.1% of this professional category in a large general hospital in Tubarão, Santa Catarina State, Brazil. Mean scores were: emotional exhaustion (17), depersonalization (7.79), and low personal fulfillment (36.6). According to the criterion proposed by Ramirez et al., no cases of burnout were diagnosed. According to the criteria by Grunfeld et al., 35.7% of the interviewees displayed burnout. The standard profile of workers with burnout identified in the study was: nurse technicians, female gender, age 26-35 years, married, with no children, and with five or more years in the profession. Hospital wards or areas with the highest proportion of nursing staff with burnout were the grouped hospital sectors (42.6%), ICU (25.9%), and neonatal ICU (18.5%). There was no statistically significant association between ward or hospital area and burnout.