Abstract
The professional staff in human service institutions are often required to spend considerable time in intense involvement with other people. Frequently, the staff–client interaction is centered around the client’s current problems (psychological, social, and/or physical) and is therefore charged with feelings of anger, embarrassment, fear, or despair. Solutions for these problems are not always obvious and easily obtained, thus adding ambiguity and frustration to the situation. For the helping professional who works continuously with people under such circumstances, the chronic stress can be emotionally draining and poses the risk of burnout. Extensive literature highlighted that healthcare professionals’ work is relentlessly overloaded, emotionally overwhelming, escalating their private life, and thus favoring burnout development. In the present research, there was found a significant difference (p < 0.001) between the burnout level (Maslach HSS) of staff working in state hospitals and staff working in private hospitals. None of the other differences were significant: age (p = 0.155), gender (p = 0.083), work experience (p = 0.480), and job (p = 0.015).