Abstract
BackgroundBurnout in the hospital environment is a problem that affects care and training. Often explored in the high-income medical context, burnout is poorly studied in low and middle-income countries characterized by a precarious hospital situation and a high stake linked to the Millennium Development Goals. The aim of our study was to determine in medical practitioners, in a sub-Saharan African country’s medical context, the burnout level and associated factors.MethodsA prospective cross-sectional study by using a self-administered Likert-scale questionnaire addressed to doctors and doctoral medical students in Gabon. Maslach Burnout Inventory scale has been used. Burnout symptoms were defined by high level in at least one of the 3 dimensions. Severe burnout defined by high level in all dimensions. Explored factors: socio-demographic and psychometric. Multiple logistic regression has been performed.ResultsAmong 104 participants, severe burnout prevailed at 1.9% (95% CI: 0.2–6.8%) and burnout symptoms at 34.6% (95% CI: 25, 6–44.6%). The associated factors with burnout symptoms: age (OR = 0.86, p = 0.004), clinical activity in a university hospital center (OR = 5.19, p = 0.006), the easy access to the hospital (OR = 0.59, p = 0.012), number of elderly dependents living with the practitioner (OR = 0.54, p = 0.012), place of residence (same borough where the hospital is located: OR = 4.09, p = 0.039) and to be favorable to traditional medicine (OR = 1.82, p = 0.087). Nagelkerke’s R-squared:53.1%.ConclusionIn Gabon, middle-income country, almost one practitioner in two has burnout symptoms. The young age, the university hospital center, the difficulty to access to hospital and to live in the borough where the hospital is located increase the probability of burnout symptoms. These results must put question to relevant authorities regarding health and medical education, to set up: a public transport for practitioners, an optimal primary health care system, a regulation of medical tasks in hospitals, a training in clinical supervision.
Highlights
Burnout in the hospital environment is a problem that affects care and training
Burnout prevalence The prevalence of severe burnout was at 1.9%
The burnout symptoms prevalence was at 34.6%: ie emotional exhaustion (EE) ≥27: 17.3%, DP ≥10: 25.0% and personal achievement (PA) ≤33: 7.7% (Table 2)
Summary
Burnout in the hospital environment is a problem that affects care and training. Often explored in the high-income medical context, burnout is poorly studied in low and middle-income countries characterized by a precarious hospital situation and a high stake linked to the Millennium Development Goals. The aim of our study was to determine in medical practitioners, in a sub-Saharan African country’s medical context, the burnout level and associated factors. The hospital is an environment where medical practice and medical training take place simultaneously. A discomfort in hospital environment have a negative effect on the quality of care and medical education. In low- and middle-income countries that are characterized by modest quality of health care, medium medical training level and poor hospital conditions, burnout is still insufficiently studied
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