Empathy, Burnout, and Attitudes towards Mental Illness among Spanish Mental Health Nurses

Daniel Román-Sánchez, Juan Carlos Paramio-Cuevas, Olga Paloma-Castro, José Luis Palazón-Fernández, Isabel Lepiani-Díaz, José Manuel de la Fuente Rodríguez and María Reyes López-Millán
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Daniel Román-Sánchez: Nursing Faculty “Salus Infirmorum”, University of Cadiz, 11001 Cadiz, Spain
Juan Carlos Paramio-Cuevas: Nursing Faculty “Salus Infirmorum”, University of Cadiz, 11001 Cadiz, Spain
Olga Paloma-Castro: Nursing Department, University of Cadiz, 11001 Cadiz, Spain
José Luis Palazón-Fernández: Nursing Faculty “Salus Infirmorum”, University of Cadiz, 11001 Cadiz, Spain
Isabel Lepiani-Díaz: Nursing Faculty “Salus Infirmorum”, University of Cadiz, 11001 Cadiz, Spain
José Manuel de la Fuente Rodríguez: Nursing Faculty “Salus Infirmorum”, University of Cadiz, 11001 Cadiz, Spain
María Reyes López-Millán: Nursing Department, University of Cadiz, 11001 Cadiz, Spain

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 2, 1-13

Abstract: Mental health nurses, together with psychiatrists, are the healthcare professionals who display the highest levels of empathy and the best attitudes towards patients with mental disorders. However, burnout is a common problem among these professionals. The aim of our study is to describe the association between empathy, burnout, and attitudes towards patients with mental disorders among mental health nurses in Spain. A descriptive cross-sectional design was used involving a sample of 750 specialist nurses working in mental health facilities in Spain. An intentional, non-probability, non-discriminative, exponential snowball sampling method was used. The Jefferson Scale of Empathy, the Maslach Burnout Inventory, and the Community Attitudes towards Mental Illness Inventory were used to measure the study variables. A positive correlation was observed between empathy and all the study variables, with the exception of the personal accomplishment dimension of burnout and the social restrictiveness and authoritarianism dimensions of attitudes towards mental illness, where a negative relation was observed. Our findings suggest that empathy is associated with an increase in positive attitudes towards patients with mental disorders, decreasing associated stigma, but did not act as a protective factor against burnout in the study sample.

Keywords: acute mental health; empathy; nursing role; stigma (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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