CO18 | Risk of burnout on the Internal Medicine ward

P. Gnerre¹, T. Attardo², L. Tesei³, O. Para⁴, D.S. Di Massimo⁵, F. Dentali² | ¹Dipartimento Medicina Interna ASL 2 Savonese, ²Dipartimento Medicina Interna, ASST Sette Laghi, ³Direzione Professione Sanitarie, sede Ancona, ⁴Dipartimento di Medicina, Ospedale Careggi Firenze, ⁵DIMET, UPO, Italy

Premises and Purpose of the study: Health workers are at higher risk for burnout than workers in other fields.
Materials and Methods: Starting from a recent global survey conducted by Medscape that showed how internists compared to other specialists reported higher burn-out rates we conducted on-line survey on a sample of 2138 health employees working in Internal Medicine (covering a wide range of age, work experience and contractual positions) from January 2023 to February 2023. The questionnaire included 35 questions concerning personal and professional life and was aimed at evaluating the presence of excessive stress related to increased workloads. Factor analysis and test reliability for the survey was determined. Mean scores for the subscales determining burnout, namely emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and lack of personal accomplishment were calculated.
Results: Nearly half of responders (49,6%) report burnout and more than half (56,7%) reveal that he was going to quit in the last year. The analysis revealed that the age group between 41-55 years and the physicians more than nurses reported more high levels of tension. We did not notice any gender differences.
Conclusions: This study shows the relevance of the risk of burnout among health employes working in Internal Medicine Units, due to severe workload and working condition. The resulting impact on the quality of the care services, and the significant costs involved, both in human and economic terms, call for significant emergency measures by the Italian health work organization.