Burnout and nursing work environment in public health institutions

Objective: to identify associations between the Burnout domains and the characteristics of the work environment. Method: cross-sectional study with 745 nurses from 40 public health institutions in Sao Paulo. Nursing Work Index-Revised (NWI-R) and Maslach Burnout Inventory were used. Similar institutions according to NWI-R were grouped by clustering and the Anova and Bonferroni tests were used in the comparative analyzes. Results: there was significant and moderate correlation between emotional exhaustion and autonomy, control over the environment and organizational support; between reduced personal accomplishment, autonomy and organizational support; and between depersonalization and autonomy. The group that presented the worst conditions in the work environment differed on emotional exhaustion from the group with most favorable traits. Conclusion: emotional exhaustion was the trait of Burnout that was more consistently related to the group of institutions with more unfavorable working conditions regarding autonomy, organizational support and control over the environment.