Burnout et maltraitance chez le personnel soignant en gérontopsychiatrie

The purpose of the study was to assess nursing aides' abusive behavior towards elderly people, as well as the relationship of such behavior to burnout variables. For the item generation phase, a semi-structured interview was conducted with 14 nursing aides working in French psychogeriatric departments. A total of 16 work-related items were retained for the self-report abuse survey. A convenience sample of 146 nursing aides completed the survey. They also completed Maslach Burnout Inventory. Descriptive and factorial analyses were conducted to assess the structure of the self-report abuse survey. Correlations were performed to assess links between self-report abuse behavior, emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalization (DP) and personal accomplishment (PA). Six items were deleted because the assumptions of normality were not respected. Factorial analysis (PCA) suggested the existence of a one-factor solution. Correlation between abuse score, EE and DP were respectively 0.45 and 0.50. Correlation with PA was not significant. The necessity to investigate and measure abusive behavior is discussed.