Caracterización del Síndrome de Agotamiento Laboral -"Burnout"- en personal de cuidados paliativos. Revisión de alcance 2010-2020

Abstract

Introduction: The presence of professional exhaustion in the palliative care team negatively affects health, the family and social environment, the institution where they work and the people to whom they provide their services. Objective: To characterize the occupational burnout syndrome in health personnel in charge of palliative care and its effects at the personal, family, social and care level, taking into account what is reported in the scientific literature. Materials and methods: A scoping review was carried out, examining articles published in scientific journals from 2010 to July 2020 that referred descriptive and analytical, observational and experimental studies on Burnout in personnel dedicated to the area of ​​palliative care, in the languages English and Spanish. The PubMed, Science Direct, Springer, Clinical Key and Scielo databases were reviewed. The search terms used were: burnout AND palliative AND terminal care and burnout AND palliative AND end of life care. The defined variables were: burnout syndrome, type of professional, sex, time of professional experience, workplace, risk factor and protective factor. Results: 22 studies were included. The prevalence of Burnout was lower than that described in other related medical specialties, such as critical care and oncology. The main risk factors were: self-perception of low spirituality (transcendent sense), being single or separated, age less than 50 years, low level of communication skills, work in isolation, overload and labor conflicts. Among the protective factors were: level of training in palliative care, effectiveness in communication, education in resilience, good reading habits, especially non-medical literature, life with a purpose, measures of self-care and well-being, positive leadership. The main intervention measures were focused on a personal level on: the reinforcement of well-being and resilience measures, continuous training in palliative care and communication, the exchange of experiences and discussion of difficult cases with peers and the control of the workload. Conclusions: despite the complex conditions in which palliative care work takes place, the prevalence levels of Burnout are lower than those found in other similar specialties. This is related to the type and quality of skills received during training in this field and personal vocation, but continuous training is necessary, recognizing and reinforcing protective factors and addressing risks.