Burnout of Caregivers in Geriatric Institution: “Coping” Strategies

Abstract

Introduction

The health sector has long been recognized to be a very stressful work environment for teams that can lead to “burnout”. Geriatric institutions are no exception to this observation; this state has deleterious effects on health care as on the quality of care.

Objectives

Measure the burnout rate among caregivers in geriatric institutions and identify associated factors and coping strategies specific to this population in order to provide the necessary preventive measures.

Subjects and method A cross-sectional study, conducted among caregivers exercising at the shelter for aged subjects of Manouba, Tunisia. We used a pre-survey exploring the socio-demographic data associated with two validated scales: the Maslach Burnout Inventory assessing the level of burnout and the Brief COPE assessing coping strategies.

Results

Thirty-one subjects were recruited. The prevalence of burnout was 45.16%. Respectively 32.26%, 25.80% and 45.16% of the respondents had high scores in dimensions emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and personal accomplishment at work. The analytical study revealed that seniority in work increased the risk of burnout. The coping strategies of caregivers in geriatric institution facing burnout were mainly centered on emotion. The number of years of experience has been associated with burnout in our study.

Conclusion

This work reaffirms that the population of caregivers in geriatric institution is at risk of burnout and allows to identify predictors. The establishment of individual and collective measures is essential for appropriate treatment references (In the body text, a publication should be referred to by a consecutive number between bracket)

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.