Analysis of organizational health and burnout among nurses from surgical, medical and pediatric fields.

Background: In the present social scenery the progressive focus of the services for the people appears as a complex phenomenon with advantages and limits tied up to the risk that the society and the organizations are not adequately able to govern its proper workers dynamics. The organizations have the role to mediate between the human being characteristics (motivations, objective, needs) and those of the work place environment, trying to create an equilibrium. When they fail in this assignment, the work environment becomes useful field to rise up some organizational pathologies, such as burnout. Objectives: The objective is to evaluate the different burnout levels in nurses of surgical, medical and paediatric fields and to individualize possible working and individual factors with the purpose to know the influential causes of satisfaction and dissatisfaction which determine the involvement, motivation and appointment levels with which the subjects manage the relationship with the organization. Methods: The sample is constituted by 155 nurses divided in 3 groups, 50 of surgical field, 55 of medical field and 50 of paediatric field, to which have been administered some questionnaires directed to evaluate the organizational health, personality characteristics and burnout risk factors. Results: The 17% of subjects of the sample result to be in burnout, but meaningful differences don't be underlined among the subjects belonging to the different departments. Instead result meaningful the differences related to the perception of job environment comfort, work stress and among the subjects in burnout and those not at risk. Organizational health is felt differently among the nurses from different fields: medical and surgical nurses perceive the working environment in more negative way in comparison to those from paediatric field. Discussion: It seems to exist a hold relationship between the burnout, the years of job and the distance from the employment place in examined nurses. In them exists a real lost of the ability to persevere in the assignment and to respect the professional duties. The only one note of relief, in the difference among the various categories, shows that the paediatric nurses altogether express some most positive evaluations of the various aspects of job condition. Conclusions: It appears necessary to solicit the business organizations and the various institutions with the purpose to compile a interventions plan aimed to reduce the risk factors and at the same time to furnish a support to those people that are already affected from burnout and to their families with the purpose to make them easier and rapid a gradual re-entry in the social and professional life.