Condiciones de trabajo y salud en docentes universitarios y de enseñanza media de Mendoza, Argentina: entre el compromiso y el desgaste emocional

Patricia Alejandra Collado, Cecilia Beatriz Soria, Eliana Canafoglia, Sandra Alicia Collado

With the objective of analyzing aspects related to the perception of working conditions and their impact on health in the teachers and professors who work for the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo (UNCuyo) in Mendoza, Argentina, this work analyzes the results of the Primer Censo de Condiciones y Salud Laboral [First Census on Health and Working Conditions]. The census was conducted in late 2013 in two academic units (one at the high school level and the other at the university level), including 193 educators. The exploration set out to characterize the teaching staff and the conditions affecting their health, primarily with respect to psycho-social health. In order to do, so a self-administered questionnaire was applied, the dimensions of which were discussed in sensitivity workshops with educators who helped to formulate the data collection instrument. Among the primary results emerge the physical and emotional burnout of these highly skilled workers, owing to the combined effect of their committed response to the demands of their work and the deterioration (both material and symbolic) of the conditions in which they carry out that work.