ABSTRACT
Burnout Syndrome; Auriculotherapy; Nursing; Primary Health Care
Auriculotherapy uses specific ear points to treat various body disorders. Burnout Syndrome (BS) is a response to chronic stress and has three dimensions: emotional exhaustion, dehumanization and disappointment with work. The aim of the study is to analyze the application of auriculotherapy in coping with and controlling the BS in Primary Health Care (PHC) nurses. This is a descriptive study, with a quantitative approach and quasi-experimental design, of pre-test and post-test types. It was carried out in the APS units of the municipality of Natal, RN. The non-probabilistic sample consisted of 75 nurses diagnosed with the disease at mild, moderate and severe levels by the Burnout Characterization Scale (BCS). Salivary cortisol was collected in all nurses to compare the concentration before and after auriculotherapy in the workers identified with the syndrome, and the hormone dosage was performed using the competitive ELISA technique. Twelve sessions were performed and the points used were: specific action (anxiety), Traditional Chinese Medicine (liver, spleen/pancreas and heart), nervous system (Shem Men and sympathetic) and endocrine system (adrenal). A favorable technical advice was obtained from the Research Ethics Committee (CEP/UFRN), protocol no. 2.444.525, and registered on the platform of the Brazilian Registry of Clinical Trials under the number RBR-4xbqbw. Data were collected from January to June of 2017 through a sociodemographic and occupational questionnaire, BCS and salivary cortisol by the Salivette™ device. Descriptive statistics techniques were used with frequency measures for categorical variables. In the inferential analysis, the Chi-Square test was used to verify the association between categorical variables: marital status, children and professional qualification. Subsequently, the normality of the data for the numerical variables was tested using the Kolmogorov Smirnov test and the Student's t test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to compare the groups. All dimensions of BCS presented alpha values above 0.60: exhaustion = 0.943; dehumanization = 0.824; disappointment at work 0.738. PHC nurses had a moderate percentage of emotional exhaustion (74.7%), accompanied by mild dehumanization (81.3%) and slight disappointment at work (60%). The prevalence of SB at levels was: severe (n = 2), moderate (n = 5) and mild (n = 64). Only four nurses did not present the disease. Correlations between socio-demographic and occupational variables showed weak statistical significance for the negative correlations between exhaustion and length of service; and between disappointment and length of service; and weak positive correlations between dehumanization with exhaustion and deception; and between deception and exhaustion, as well as a strong statistical tendency for the positive correlation between disappointment and age. ANOVA between BCS dimensions revealed a statistically significant difference between all dimensions of the disease. Comparison of salivary cortisol within the groups (mild, moderate, severe, and non-sickness Burnout) between collection shifts (morning and afternoon) showed statistical significance among the groups of mild, severe and non-disease BS. Comparing the concentration of salivary cortisol (morning and evening) before and after the intervention, there was a significant reduction in the nurses who performed the therapy and who had the disease at a severe level. In conclusion, BS is associated with service time of less than 8 years and 40-hour workweek, and auriculotherapy is efficient in reducing salivary cortisol concentration in nurses with serious disease level.