Introduction:

Burnout syndrome was described for the first time by Freudenberger in 1974. It has been generating since then a large amount of research about its main symptoms, such as emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and inefficacy. Healthcare personnel, teachers and policemen are described as being amongst the three highest-risk professional jobs.

Objective:

The aim of the current research was not only to value the prevalence of the burnout syndrome in the health personnel from Arequipa city (Peru), but to compare the data according to genre, economic income, marital status, working period, job tittle, profession and home institution.

Method:

A descriptive design was used applying the Maslach Burnout Inventory, which consists of 22 items and counts with validity and reliability (α= .76) adequate indexes.

Results:

213 people from the healthcare sector who work in hospitals and healthcare centers at Arequipa city were tested. 35,7% are males and 63,8% are females, with an average age of 37 years old. The results indicate that high percentages of professionals in healthcare services suffer some symptoms of burnout syndrome, and only 5,6% have the burnout syndrome at severe levels. Moreover, differences among workers relating genre, working period, job tittle, profession and work institution were registered.

Discussion:

It was concluded not only that the burnout syndrome have a concerned presence in healthcare personnel, especially in the depersonalization dimension, but also that the differences according to demographic variables could be explained by work environment and job conditions.