Burnout and empathy among professional caregivers of elderly

The aim of this research has been to analyze cognitive and affective empathy among professional workers in an institutionalized center. Empathy is the capacity of taking into account others points of with feelings and emotions as Theory of Mind claims. Depersonalization emerges in caregivers in certain circumstances. This acts as a mechanism of defense and is typical in the professional with high levels of burnout. For this reason, it proceeded to examine this syndrome and its relationship with empathy among 20 professional caregivers. The instruments used were the Cognitive and Affective Empathy Scale (consisted of scales understanding of perspectives, emotional understanding, empathic stress and sympathetic joy), Maslach Burnout Inventory (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and professional accomplishment) and an ad hoc survey for the workforce for the collection of sociodemographic and workplace information. The results show a significant positive correlation, with high effect size, between age and empathic stress and between this one and emotional exhaustion. Positive significance between depersonalization and sympathetic joy has also been found. The conclusions of this research lead a reflection on the configuration and structure of this defense mechanism and its relationship with empathy in the workplace.