Empathy, Burnout, and Attitudes Toward Patients with Mental Disorders Among Mental Health Nurse Residents in Spain: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Background/Objectives: Mental health nurses are among the health professionals who show the highest levels of empathy and the most positive attitudes towards patients with mental disorders. Nevertheless, burnout is a prevalent issue among these professionals, as well as throughout their training as...

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Publicado en:Nursing Reports Vol. 15; no. 11; pp. 381 - 399
Autores principales: Román-Sánchez, Daniel, Bocchino, Anna, Palazón-Fernández, José Luis, Mata-Pérez, Concepción, Cruz-Barrientos, Alberto, de la Fuente Rodríguez, José Manuel, Paramio-Cuevas, Juan Carlos
Formato: research tables/charts Journal Article
Publicado: MDPI Nov2025
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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      dt: Nov2025
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        atl: Empathy, Burnout, and Attitudes Toward Patients with Mental Disorders Among Mental Health Nurse Residents in Spain: A Cross-Sectional Study.
      aug:
        au:
          Román-Sánchez, Daniel
          Bocchino, Anna
          Palazón-Fernández, José Luis
          Mata-Pérez, Concepción
          Cruz-Barrientos, Alberto
          de la Fuente Rodríguez, José Manuel
          Paramio-Cuevas, Juan Carlos
        affil: Salus Infirmorum Nursing Center, University of Cádiz, 11001 Cádiz, Spain
      sug:
        subj:
          Empathy
          Burnout, Professional Spain
          Psychiatric Nursing Spain
          Attitude to Illness
          Mental Disorders
          Interns and Residents Spain
          Nurse Attitudes Evaluation
          Human
          Cross Sectional Studies
          Internship and Residency
          Spain
          Descriptive Research
          Scales
          Purposive Sample
          Psychiatric Patients
          Academic Medical Centers
          Male
          Female
          Descriptive Statistics
          Adult
          Positive Psychology
          Nonexperimental Studies
          Snowball Sample
          Power Analysis
          Multimethod Studies
          Mann-Whitney U Test
          Data Analysis Software
          Two-Tailed Test
          Adult: 19-44 years
          Male
          Female
      ab: Background/Objectives: Mental health nurses are among the health professionals who show the highest levels of empathy and the most positive attitudes towards patients with mental disorders. Nevertheless, burnout is a prevalent issue among these professionals, as well as throughout their training as residents. The objective of this study is to examine the relationship between empathy, burnout and attitudes towards patients with mental disorders among mental health nurse residents in Spain. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive design was employed with a sample of 214 resident nurses engaged in specialty training in mental health teaching units in Spain. The sample was selected purposely. The Jefferson Empathy Scale, the Maslach Burnout Inventory and the Community Attitudes Towards Mental Illness Inventory were employed to quantify the study variables. Results: The study sample included 214 residents, composed of 46 males (21.5%) and 168 females (78.5%), with an overall median age of 27.00 years (IQR: 25.00–29.00). The internal reliability of the instruments was high (JSE α = 0.834, MBI α = 0.821, CAMI-CMH α = 0.851). Our findings indicate that empathy during residency is associated with an enhancement in positive attitudes towards patients with mental disorders, and a reduction in the associated stigma (JSE vs. CAMI-SR: ρ = −0.210, p < 0.01). However, empathy did not act as a protective factor against burnout in the study sample, showing a moderate positive correlation with emotional exhaustion (JSE vs. MBI-EE: ρ = 0.481, p < 0.01). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that although empathy does not necessarily act as a protective factor against burnout, it may favour more positive and less stigmatising attitudes towards people with mental disorders. Future research is needed to further investigate the complex interplay between emotional competencies and work-related stress in this context.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype:
        research
        tables/charts
        Journal Article
      ougenre: Article
    language: English
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