Abstract

Objective: to analyse the impact of sociodemographic and occupational variables, health status, emotional intelligence, perceived social support and spirituality, upon the development of burnout in Nursing professionals at one year after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in Chile. Methods: a descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted (July to October 2021). The study population were nurses who had worked during the pandemic at any healthcare centre in Chile, seeing patients during at least three months. An online questionnaire was applied, including the nurse profile, the Maslach Burnout Inventory, the Standardized Nordic questionnaire, the Trait-Meta Mood Scale-24, the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, and the Brief Spirituality/Religiousness Index. Descriptive analysis, correlations and linear regression were conducted. Results: the study included 192 professionals, 181 (94,3%) were female. Their mean age (SD) was 30.8 (6.81) years. Their mean seniority (SD) was 5.6 (5.98) years. Of these nurses, 64.1% presented burnout. A reverse and moderate relationship was observed between the burnout and emotional intelligence dimensions (direct in the case of personal fulfilment). A direct and moderate relationship was observed between personal fulfilment and social support by friends. There was also an indirect and close to moderate relationship between emotional exhaustion and spirituality. In the predictive models, physical pain and emotional intelligence were associated with burnout. Conclusions: more than half of Nursing professionals presented burnout, and its main predictors were physical pain and emotional intelligence.