Estudio sobre el síndrome de Burnout en docentes de la Escuela Politécnica Nacional

Abstract

This Master’s research focuses on why academic teaching staff at the National Polytechnic University (EPN) are experiencing and living with the various debilitating symptoms of Burnout Syndrome and identifying the main sources of stress that has caused the mental, emotional and physical exhaustion termed ‘Burnout’. In order to measure the ‘level of Burnout’ and the most likely causes of stress amongst academic teaching staff in their particular work environment, which includes the scope and nature of their individual functions, two questionnaires, already validated by previous studies, were used as the primary information gathering tools of this study. According to the results of this study, 10,71% of all full-time academic teaching staff at the National Polytechnic University (EPN) are showing clear symptoms of ‘Burnout’ and that the most common causes of this stress are; the lack of co-operation the lack of communication and constantly adapting to change. However, the study also shows that academic teaching staff find a lack of co-operation and a lack of communication more stressful than dealing with constantly adapting to change, which implies that they have developed ways of coping with ‘constantly adapting to change’. The results also indicate that there are no significant differences in the prevalence, magnitude and common causes of ‘Burnout’ neither between the different genders nor between the various faculties at the university.