The prevalence of job burnout among the staff of health care centers of Ahvaz jundishapur university of medical sciences

Background: Job burnout is one of the main issues employees typically face, which results from job and organizational pressures. The present study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of job burnout and its associated factors among the staff of health care centers of Jundishapur University of Medical Science.

Material and methods: This was a descriptive/analytic cross- sectional study carried out on 150 staff members of the health care centers at Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences. The participants were selected through convenience sampling in the spring of 2012. The data were gathered using demographic forms and Maslach Burnout Inventory, and were analyzed through descriptive statistics and t-test.

Results: The results showed that mean burnout scores in subscale of exhaustion was 20.60 out of 54 scores; in subscale of professional efficacy, it was 13.58 out of 48 scores; and in subscale of cynicism 6.63 out of 30 scores. Frequency of exhaustion, cynicism, and professional efficacy were respectively seen in 58.2, 69.3, and 81.2% of the participants. In addition, there was a significant relationship between subscales of job burnout and variables of gender and marital status of the staff (P<0.05). Therefore, the findings indicated higher exhaustion mean scores, cynicism mean scores, and professional mean efficacy scores in the women compared to the men. In addition, exhaustion mean scores, mean cynicism scores in married individuals were more than in the singles. Professional mean efficacy scores in the singles were more than in the married individuals.

Conclusion: Considering the role of burnout in affecting the effectiveness of the staff and decreasing the quality of their performance, it is necessary for the authorities and modulators to pay more attention to this issue, and to apply preventive strategies to solve the problem.