The term burnout was first introduced by Freudenberger several decades ago but remains an important problem in modern working environments. Despite the lack of a generally accepted definition, Maslach and Leither consider that burnout results from chronic stress (in the workplace) that has not been adequately dealt with. Symptoms include emotional exhaustion and depersonalization and the burnout syndrome has also been associated with medical conditions such as headaches, sleep disturbances, irritability, hypertension, anxiety, depression and even acute heart disease. Other consequences include reduced performance and satisfaction at work. The Malasch Burnout Inventory is a widely used and reliable measure which has been used in different populations.

In this study the authors propose to evaluate the prevalence of burnout syndrome in a Portuguese sample of health professionals (doctors and nurses), working in five different hospital settings (surgery, medicine, psychiatry, anesthesiology and laboratory), and its relationship with variables such as social and demographic data, job profile and job satisfaction, and balance between job and personal life. The Portuguese version of the Malasch Burnout Inventory, which has been translated and adapted to the Portuguese population by Melo and Cruz, will be used as well as a semi-structured questionnaire for remaining data.