Risk factors of burnout syndrome in nurses working in the intensive care unit: integrative review

Abstract

Introduction: Burnout is a syndrome resulting from chronic stress at work. It is characterized by three dimensions: feelings of exhaustion or depletion of energy; increased psychological strain at work, or negative feelings, resulting in reduced productivity. Objective: It was to describe the factors that lead to Burnout Syndrome in intensive care nurses, as well as the negative impacts. Method: This study is bibliographic in nature, integrative. To select the articles, a search was carried out in the following databases: Latin American and Caribbean Literature in Health Sciences (LILACS), Scientific Electronic Library On-line (SciELO), National Library of Medicine platform (PubMed), Databases of Nursing Data (BDENF), in addition to the International Medical and Biomedical Literature Databases (MEDLINE). Complete articles were used from 2016 to 2023. Results: In a sample of 166 articles found, 8 duplicate articles were excluded. After the eligibility criteria were applied, a further 138 articles were excluded because they did not meet the established criteria. A further 19 articles were subsequently excluded, as they were not related to the work problem. Finally, 9 articles remained for the development of the research. Discussion: It can be observed that understanding the social representations regarding the Burnout phenomenon is important for a better understanding of its conceptual dimension, as well as its impact on the lives of professional nurses. Conclusion: The need for strategies that reduce the occurrence of Burnout Syndrome, therefore, it is important to encourage and value nursing professionals to reduce overload, that is, to increase the demand for professionals in each sector, including the ICU. Furthermore, it is expected that the approaches and discussions presented during the study can serve as scientific support and a guiding instrument in the search for improvements for health professionals who tend to have Burnout Syndrome.