Association between low empathy and high burnout among primary care physicians and nurses in Lleida, Spain

Ver/ Abrir
Fecha de publicación
2017Autor/a
Vivanco, Luis
Cita recomendada
Yuguero Torres, Oriol;
Marsal Mora, Josep Ramon;
Esquerda i Aresté, Montse;
Vivanco, Luis;
Soler González, Jorge;
.
(2017)
.
Association between low empathy and high burnout among primary care physicians and nurses in Lleida, Spain.
European Journal of General Practice, 2017, vol. 23, núm. 1, p. 4-10.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13814788.2016.1233173.
Metadatos
Mostrar el registro completo del ítemResumen
Background: Burnout is a growing problem among healthcare professionals and may be mitigated
and even prevented by measures designed to promote empathy and resilience.
Objectives: We studied the association between burnout and empathy in primary care practitioners
in Lleida, Spain and investigated possible differences according to age, sex, profession,
and place of practice (urban versus rural).
Methods: All general practitioners (GPs) and family nurses in the health district of Lleida (population
366 000) were asked by email to anonymously complete the Maslach Burnout Inventory
(MBI) and the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (JSPE) between May and July 2014. Tool consistency
was evaluated by Cronbach’s a, the association between empathy and burnout by
Spearman’s correlation coefficient, and the association between burnout and empathy and sociodemographic
variables by the v2 test.
Results: One hundred and thirty-six GPs and 131 nurses (52.7% response rate) from six urban
and 16 rural practices participated (78.3% women); 33.3% of respondents had low empathy,
while 3.7% had high burnout. The MBI and JSPE were correlated (P<.001) and low burnout was
associated with high empathy (P<.05). Age and sex had no influence on burnout or empathy.
Conclusion: Although burnout was relatively uncommon in our sample, it was associated with
low levels of empathy. This finding and our observation of lower empathy levels in rural settings
require further investigation.
Es parte de
European Journal of General Practice, 2017, vol. 23, núm. 1, p. 4-10Proyectos de investigación europeos
Colecciones
El ítem tiene asociados los siguientes ficheros de licencia: