BURNOUT SYNDROME AMONG CRITICAL CARE NURSES AT KENYATTA NATIONAL HOSIPITAL, KENYA

Abstract

Burnout is often described as a syndrome primarily characterized by emotional exhaustion and cynicism arising from continued exposure to excessive demands placed on mental energy levels during continuous contact with other people. Nurses are vulnerable to burnout syndrome as it can originate from nursing work itself as well as from characteristics of the worker and work environment. This study’s main objective was to investigate burnout and its associated factors among nurses working at the Critical Care Unit at Kenyatta National hospital. It examined the relationship between burnout, various demographic and other factors among the respondents. The design was cross-sectional descriptive study which focused on burnout syndrome at Kenyatta national hospital in Nairobi, a tertiary referral hospital where medical professional practice in an environment characterized by significant workload in a resources constrained environment. In this study, 98 nurses, 70% female and 30% male were recruited from the Critical care unit. Stratified sampling took into account various shift after which random samples were drawn. The instrument used to determine burnout was the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI). Univariate statistics on the three dimensions of burnout were examined to determine the levels of burnout for the sample of Critical Care Nurses’ .Burnout means for the sample were compared to Project on Burnout, Motivation and Job satisfaction (PUMA) from which CBI was developed. The subjects of this study demonstrated lower scores on work and client /patient burnout scale (47.5, 47.9 respectively) and a higher than normal level of personal burnout. (53.7).The findings confirmed the hypothesized relationship such as nurses’ age, marital status, years of experience, and Nursing qualification which had a significant positive correlation with burnout. In this regard, older nurses seemed to experience more burnout then younger nurses on the personal burnout subscale. Marital status was significantly correlated with work and client burnout while nurses’ professional qualification and years of practice was found to be positively correlated with burnout on the three subscales of burnout on the CBI. Burnout among the male and female nurses on the personal, work and client burnout was not statically significant.