| Anesthetists are exposed to a large amount of occupational stress (Harma et al., 2006). Sources of stress in this profession may include large workload, organizational issues, working atmosphere, difficulties in managing work and family, and on-call work (Harma et al., 2006). Stress can lead to burnout syndrome, which is a condition characterized by high levels of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and low levels of personal accomplishment (Kluger, Laidlaw, & Townsend, 2003). The purpose of this study is to randomly survey a group of anesthetists and determine the level of burnout experienced in this particular group. The Maslach Burnout Inventory-general survey was used to measure emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and professional efficacy in this sample. The general survey replaces depersonalization with cynicism and personal accomplishment with professional efficacy (Leiter, et al., 1997). Betty Neuman's systems model was used to aide in interpretation of findings. Emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and professional efficacy appeared to be high in this sample. |
