Professional burnout among school counselors in basic school

Šolski svetovalni delavci so zaradi narave svojega dela pogostokrat v stresu, ta pa se lahko sčasoma ob neustreznem spoprijemanju z njim razvije tudi v poklicno izgorelost. V Sloveniji do zdaj še ni bila narejena nobena raziskava, ki bi ugotavljala zaznavo poklicne izgorelosti pri šolskih svetovalnih delavcih. Naša raziskava bo zato zapolnila vrzel na področju raziskovanja šolskega svetovalnega dela. V prispevku predstavljamo nekatera teoretična izhodišča o poklicni izgorelosti in rezultate empirične raziskave. Namen empirične raziskave je bil ugotoviti zaznavanje poklicne izgorelosti pri šolskih svetovalnih delavcih – zanimala nas je stopnja poklicne izgorelosti ter obstoj razlik glede na starost, izobrazbo in prisotnost supervizije. V raziskavi smo analizirali tri dimenzije poklicne izgorelosti pri šolskih svetovalnih delavcih, in sicer manjšo izpolnjenost, izčrpanost in depersonalizacijo. Rezultati so pokazali, da večina šolskih svetovalnih delavcev dokaj homogeno zaznava povprečno raven poklicne izgorelosti. Znotraj posameznih dimenzij poklicne izgorelosti pri šolskih svetovalnih delavcih se je izkazalo, da je najmočneje izražen občutek manjše izpolnjenosti. Prav tako se je v raziskavi pokazalo, da do največjih razlik prihaja pri dimenzijah manjša izpolnjenost in čustvena izčrpanost glede na izobrazbo in prisotnost supervizije.School counsellors are often stressed due to the nature of their work. This stress can, when unsatisfyingly treated, easily evolve to a professional burnout. In Slovenia no research with the specific aim to explore the professional burnout among school counsellors has been performed so far. Hence the aim of the present research is to compensate this shortage in the area of school counselling. The paper presents some theoretical foundations of occupational burnout and results of empirical research. The purpose of the empirical research was to determine the perceptions of occupational burnout among school counselors. We were interested in the level of occupational burnout and existing differences in terms of age, education and presence of supervision. We analysed the results of the present study according to three dimensions of occupational burnout in school counselors, namely lesser fulfilment, exhaustion and depersonalization. Results have shown that the perceived level of the avarage occupational burnout in most school counsellors is relatively homogenous. Within the individual dimensions of professional burnout among school counselors the sense of lesser fulfillment has proven to be the most strongly expressed. The study also showed that the greatest differences are seen in the dimension of lesser fulfilment and emotional exhaustion with regard to education and presence of supervision