Sofrimento moral e síndrome de Burnout em enfermeiros de um hospital universitário

Abstract

Situations in which nurses are confronted with ethical issues, that end up causing conflicts and interfering with the quality of their work activities, can cause moral distress and thus threaten the health and well-being of nurses leading to illness, there may also be professional implications, such as the development of Burnout Syndrome. The present paper had as general objective the aim to analyze the relationship between Moral Distress and Burnout Syndrome in nurses at a University Hospital. And specific, to characterize the referred population regarding sociodemographic and labor data and analyze the occurring situations and manifestations of illnesses due to Moral Distress and Burnout Syndrome in the perception of hospital nurses. This is a quantitative-qualitative study, the population here approached consists in nurses from a University Hospital in the Southern region of Rio Grande do Sul, whom in the first stage, the quantitative cycle, had sociodemographic and labor instruments completed by the professionals, following Brazilian Scale of Moral Distress and the Maslach Burnout Inventory, data collection took place from April to July 2019. Data analysis was performed using descriptive and analytical statistics. The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee under opinion number 049598. During second stage, the qualitative part, a semi-structured interview was carried out via google-meet, data collection was made from August to October 2021. As to the qualitative analysis, the Textual Discursive Analysis was used as referential. An association was noticed between moral distress, dimensions of Burnout Syndrome and Burnout constructs in which the intensity and frequency of Moral Suffering are associated with intense emotional distress, high depersonalization and low professional fulfillment. Furthermore, it was found that nurses with low professional achievement and high emotional distress have had a higher prevalence of Moral Distress. It was also possible to verify manifestations of illnesses related to burnout syndrome and moral distress at work in nurses. It was also possible to verify that work condition situations, team work and relationship issues, professional disrespect and knowledge of inappropriate care practices are related to the development of Moral Suffering and Burnout Syndrome. On the other hand, physical and psycho-emotional exhaustion, and dissatisfaction and intention to leave the job were listed as manifestations of illnesses among nurses. The present study has as contribution to research and nursing the identification of association links between both variables of illness, which are relevant to the hospital context in which it can emphasize nurses' health care.