Occupational stress, burnout and patient safety culture among workers from critical care and non critical care units in a hospital in Brazil.

Objectives: To evaluate the relationship among occupational stress, burnout and the perception of patient safety culture in health workers in critical care compared to non critical care units.

Research Methodology: A cross-sectional study with health workers in the critical care and non critical care units of a university public hospital in Brazil. Data were collected using the Demographic and Labour Profile Questionnaire, Safety Attitudes Questionnaire, Job Stress Scale and the Maslach Burnout Inventory. An analysis of descriptive and inferential statistics was performed in PASW Statistics® software.

Results: A total of 393 health workers participated in the study, with 58.3% from critical care units and 41.7% from non critical care units. There was a prevalence of workers in high demand in non critical care units and 13.4% were experiencing burnout; there was a predominance of active work in the reviews and 8.3% were experiencing burnout. The patient safety culture perception was negative in both. The multivariate analysis pointed out that the variables such as high demand and burnout increased the prevalence of negatively assessing the safety culture.

Conclusion: Workers from non critical care units were more affected by occupational stress and burnout and seemed to evaluate the safety culture more negatively, which can interfere in the quality of care provided.