Saudi Arabian Nurses. Are they prone to burnout syndrome?

OBJECTIVE: To find out the prevalence of Burnout syndrome (BS) in Saudi nurses.

METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study involving 60 female Saudi nurses in the workforce of King Fahd University Hospital, Al-Khobar, which is a tertiary care center for the eastern province. Between May and August 2009, Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) individual-based questionnaire was distributed after modification to include age, marital status, unit working and number of years in service. We used the 3 MBI factors: emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalization (DP), and personal accomplishment (PA) for analysis of BS.

RESULTS: Thirty-seven nurses (61.6%) completed the survey. The average age was 28.10±2.07 years and the average duration of work was 27.36±7.2 months. Seventeen (45.9%) had high EE and 35.1% (13) had moderate frequency of EE. Depersonalization was high in 18 (48.6%) and moderate in 15 (40.5%). Emotional exhaustion was significantly common in the married group with a frequency of 31.9±12.1 versus 22.55±9.67 (p=0.01). The nurses working in high activity areas were more emotionally exhausted and depersonalized when compared with the nurses taking care of patients in the wards and out patients clinics (p=0.003).

CONCLUSION: The findings show that Saudi nurses had a higher frequency of EE and DP, and most of them had low PA.