Efstathia M. Vlachou, Dimitrios Damigos, George Lyrakos, Konstantinos Chanopoulos, George Kosmidis and Miltiades Karavis
Objectives: Burnout syndrome (B.S.) affects millions of workers around the world, having a significant impact on their quality of life and the services they provide. It’s a psycho-social phenomenon, which can be handled through emotional management and psychological help. Emotional Intelligence (E.I) is very important to emotional management. This paper aims to investigate the relationship between Burnout syndrome and Emotional Intelligence in health professionals occupied in the sector of rehabilitation.
Methods: The data were collected from a sample of 148 healthcare professionals, workers in the field of rehabilitation, who completed Maslach Burnout Inventory questionnaire, Trait Emotional Intelligence Que-Short Form questionnaire and a questionnaire collecting demographic data as well as personal and professional information. Simple linear regression and multiple regression analyses were conducted to analyze the data.
Results: The results indicated that there is a positive relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Burnout syndrome as Emotional Intelligence acts protectively against Burnout syndrome and even reduces it. In particular, it was found that the higher the Emotional Intelligence, the lower the Burnout syndrome. Also, among all factors of Emotional Intelligence, “Emotionality”, seems to influence Burnout syndrome the most, as, the higher the rate of Emotionality, the lower the rate of Burnout. At the same time, evidence was found on the variability of Burnout syndrome through various models of explanation and correlation between Burnout syndrome and Emotional Intelligence and also, Burnout syndrome and Emotional Intelligence factors.
Conclusion: Employers could focus on building emotional relationships with their employees, especially in the health care field. Furthermore, they could also promote some experimental seminars, sponsored by public or private institutions, in order to enhance Emotional Intelligence and to improve the workers’ quality of life and the quality of services they provide.
