Job burnout and some of its risk factors on the health workers (Behvarz) in Koohrang County, I.R.Iran, in 2010

Emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and lack of personal accomplishment are three dimensions of job burnout. Symptoms occur when employee's abilities and skills are not match with job demands. In a health care organization, staffs are exposed to physical, mental and emotional stresses and predisposed to job burnout. In this survey we studied Job burnout and some of its risk factors among Koohrang county Rural Health Workers (RHW or Behvarz) in 2010. This descriptive-analytical study designed to assess job burnout dimensions in RHW of Koohrang county in 2010. Total koohrang county RHW (n=81) entered to the study. Two types of questionnaires were used for data collection: 1) Demographic data questionnaire include of age, sex, marriage status, level of education, type of employment and working years. 2) Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) as a common valid questionnaire for assessment of job burnout. The reliability and internal validity of MBI questionnaire had been proved in previous studies. Data were analyzed by SPSS using ANOVA, spearman correlation and simple t tests. In different dimensions of job burnout, frequency of high lack of accomplishment, high emotional exhaustion and high depersonalization were 24.5%, 4.6% and 2.7% respectively but severity of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization were 6.7% and 1.3%. None of them reported severe lack of personal accomplishment. The relation between demographic factors and job burnout was not statistically significant (P>0.05). There were significant correlation between emotional exhaustion and depersonalization and between personal accomplishment and emotional exhaustion (P<0.001). The study shows that frequency and severity of job burnout in different dimensions are low. It could be explained by their appropriate socioeconomic status, short distance to workplace as one of its advantages, job security, low level of life expectations accompanying with nice climate.