Burnout syndrome and teaching work

an exploratory study with teachers of the public education system

Abstract

The stress is defined as a temporary process of adaptation that comprises physical and mental modifications. When the consequences of the stress are not properly treated, they can evolve to the development of the burnout syndrome, more commonly known as the careless caregiver or the unattended assistant syndrome (PORTERO; RUIZ, 1998). To identify the incidence of the burnout syndrome in professionals that work as teachers in a city placed in the north plateau in the state of Santa Catarina. It was a basic and descriptive research of quantitative and qualitative approach having as inclusion criterion for this study the signing of the Term of Free and Clear Consent and the fulfilling of the questionnaires. RESULTS: 173 teachers had participated of the research. From the total amount, 75.2% are aged between 31 and 50 years old. About the workload, 67.1% work between 31 and 40 hours weekly. As for the gender, 87.9% are female and 12.1% are male. As regards of the burnout syndrome in the studied sample, 35.8% show some kind of possibility of developing the syndrome, 49.7% are in the initial stage of burnout, 12.7% are on the initial installation of the syndrome and 1.7% are on a considerable stage. This study shows that on the teaching practice, the incidence of burnout syndrome is due to the encreasing of the responsabilities required from the professional that often does not have the necessary means to achieve these demands. Another aspect that emphasizes this index is related to the high expectation on the process of teaching-learning, that oftentimes do not show any effective response (BENEVIDES-PEREIRA, 2010).

Keywords: Psychology. Education. Worker’s Health. Burnout Syndrome.