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 28.102.07 years and the average duration of work was 27.367.2 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 31.912.1 versus 22.559.67 (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).


CONCLUSIONS
The findings show that Saudi nurses had a higher frequency of EE and DP, and most of them had low PA.
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, King Fahd University Hospital, PO Box 40286, Al-Khobar 31952, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. drhturki@hotmail.com
Haifa A
HA
Al-Turki
D000328:Adult; D002055:Burnout, Professional / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003861:Depersonalization; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009726:Nurses; D012529:Saudi Arabia / Q000453:epidemiology