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

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2022-01Department
Enfermería y FisioterapiaSource
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(2), 692Abstract
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.
Subjects
acute mental health; empathy; nursing role; stigmaCollections
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