SOURCES OF PROFESSIONAL STRESS AND BURNOUT SYNDROME AMONG HEALTH CARE SOCIAL WORKERS IN THE REPUBLIC OF SLOVENIA

Burnout at work in health core is a relatively under-explored topic, so the goal of this work is to determine the level of burnout of health-care social workers in the Republic of Slovenia. The research has proved the level of burnout to be moderate (moderate levels of emotional exhaustion and personal accomplishment, low level of depersonalisation). Low depersonalisation is the only difference when compared to the results from the American population of social workers (Maslach, 1996), where the emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and personal accomplishment are equally distributed among the social workers. The results have shown the need to develop the helping and self-helping skills in order to maintain the mental health of health-care social workers through a more clear definition of the role of social workers in health care, establishing quality interpersonal relations and regular seminars on the topic of burnout.