[Subjective and objective indicators of stress and burnout risk in a healthcare retirement home]

Introduction. Elderly care workers have a higher risk than other professionals of developing burnout. Despite literature has highlighted the methodological advantage resulting from an integration of subjective and objective measures of stressors, only few studies have investigated job stress and burnout in the Italian elderly care context using this kind of assessment. The aims of this study were: a) to investigate the level of stress and burnout and their organizational sources in a sample of eldercare workers by means of subjective and objective tools, and b) to compare the stress and burnout levels between health care staff and nursing aides employed in a residential home for the elderly.Methods. The sample of the study included the totality of the elderly workers employed in a residential home for the elderly (N=49; response rate: 100%). The Maslach Burnout Inventory-GS and the Areas of Worklife Scale were used for the subjective assessment of burnout and organizational risk factors. A check list of objective indicators was used for the objective assessment of job stress.Results. Results from the self-report questionnaires showed high levels of exhaustion and a perception of high workload and unfairness for the total sample. Objective parameters of job stress risk were biomechanical overload, dealing with suffering people and the risk of work-related violence. Nursing aides had greater risk of burnout and reported a greater number of objective sources of stress, compared to health care workers. Conclusions. This exploratory study supports the use of both subjective and objective method for the assessment of job stress risk as the most comprehensive approach for the implementation of preventive and corrective interventions.​