Measuring the levels of burnout syndrome and empathy of Spanish emergency medical service professionals

to determine the prevalence of burnout syndrome among Spanish emergency medical service professionals and establish any possible relationships between their levels of empathy and sociodemographic and/or working conditions. 550 professionals participated in this descriptive study by responding to the Maslach Burnout Inventory and the Basic Empathy Scale. respondents were, on average, 40.9 years old (SD=9.03) and 63.4% were female. Their average length of service was 11.6 years (SD=8.1); 57.9% were physicians, 22.4% nurses, and 7.2% technical staff. Of the 337 who said they had children, 51% said that parenthood affected their emotional state when attending emergency situations involving children. Participants generally considered themselves to be competent (x˙=4.2; SD=0.7) and occupationally motivated (x˙=3.8; SD=1.1). More experienced participants presented fewer signs of burnout and empathy and more signs of competence (p