Factors contributing to burnout amongst medical officers in Hospital Selayang / Nur Faizah Ali

Background: Burnout among doctors is hazardous. Doctors experiencing burnout may make poor decision; expose to medical errors, demonstrate inappropriate attitude toward patients and caregivers; and have difficult relationships with other health professionals. Hence, identifying factors contributing to burnout is crucial so that safe and effective services can be delivered to the patients.
Objective: To determine the level of burnout and its associated factors including sociodemographic factors, coping skills and psychological distress among medical officers in Hospital Selayang
Methodology: This is a cross-sectional study involving 250 medical officers working in Hospital Selayang, recruited through universal sampling. Those who fulfilled the selection criteria and gave informed consent were selected. Presence of burnout, type of coping skills and level of psychological disturbances (depression, anxiety and stress) were measured using Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI-HSS), Brief COPE and Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale 21 (DASS-21) respectively. Descriptive analysis was performed, followed by univariate analysis and multiple logistic regression analysis.
Results: Of the total 250 participants, 63 (25.2%) medical officers in Hospital Selayang had burnout. About 34.4% of the medical officers had clinically significant anxiety while 25.2% had clinically significant depression and 17.6% had clinically significant stress. The presence of burnout was significantly associated with being single (X² = 4.96; p=0.026), dysfunctional coping skills (t=-4.96; p <0.001) and clinically significant depression (X² =37.90; p<0.001), clinically significant anxiety (X² =22.50; p<0.001) and clinically significant stress (X² =43.79; p<0.001). Medical officers who adopted the dysfunctional coping skills had 1.1. times odds of having burnout than those who did not. Having no depression and no stress were protective factors for burnout
Conclusion: Burnout is prevalent among medical officers in Hospital Selayang. Being single, having dysfunctional coping skills and experiencing psychological distress such as depression, anxiety and stress contribute to burnout among doctors. Hence, medical professionals need to actively manage their problems or stress through healthy ways of coping