Rehabilitation Educators’ Burnout Syndrome And Self-Estimation Of Their Professional Competence

The professional burnout syndrome, which is a real threat in the job of rehabilitation educators, lowers the quality of their psychophysical functioning and, as a result, significantly impacts the quality of their work, reducing the effectiveness of the rehabilitation process. The purpose of the research presented in the article was to determine the structure and the intensity of the special educators’ burnout syndrome, and to establish the relationship between burnout and self-estimation of professional competence of teachers. The studies covered a group of 51 educators working with juvenile delinquents in three correctional institutions (borstals) in Poland. The main research tool was the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). A survey showed a slightly elevated level of burnout in the test group and a relationship between the respective components of the professional burnout syndrome and self-estimation of professional competencies of rehabilitation educators: a statistically significant negative correlation between depersonalisation and subjectively assessed level of practical and moral competencies of the examined charges, and a positive correlation between a sense of personal accomplishment and the level of technical as well as practical and moral competence. The results obtained suggest that the development of professional competence should constitute the basis of mental hygiene and burnout prevention in the profession of rehabilitation educator.