The association between shift work and burnout among Jordanian military health care workers

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Burnout is one of the most important occupational health problems and psychosocial phenomenon in modern world society. Particularly, in military medical settings, there are a variety of inimitable precursors of chronic stressors and pressures. Burnout is not confined to the civilian setting, it would be more reflected in the context of military work. Moreover, shift work is considered one of the occupational risk factors for the burnout syndrome in health care workers. In Jordanian literature, studies regarding shift work and burnout among Jordanian military health care workers are scarce. The aim of this study was to identify and describe the association between shift work and burnout among Jordanian military health care workers. Methods This study was a cross-sectional survey of military health care workers at King Hussein Medical Center or City situated in Amman, capital of Jordan. The medical city contains the major Jordanian Royal Medical Services’ specialty hospitals. Ethical authorization and agreement to conduct the study were obtained from the Royal Medical Services Human Research Ethics Committee of the Jordanian Royal Medical Services. Data were collected via a self-answered questionnaire which included details of the demographic data, occupational history and safety questions and burnout data. Burnout was measured by the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). Results Three hundred and six military health care workers were invited in the study; two hundred and eighty-six accepted participation and returned fully completed questionnaires, representing 93.46% response rate. According to the results of the survey, the Jordanian health care workers revealed relatively high levels of emotional exhaustion (mean=30.54, SD=12.02), moderate levels of personal accomplishment and depersonalization (mean=31.61, SD=8.74; mean=12.11, SD=6.83), respectively. There was a significant difference between the shift and non-shift health care workers in high, moderate, and low levels of the three burnout dimensions. In detail, 69.3% of the health care 5

workers who perform shift work showed signs of high levels of emotional exhaustion comparing with 50.4% of the health care workers who did not perform shift work (p=0.0002). 55.8% of the health care workers who did shift work reported signs of low levels of personal achievement in comparsion with 36.6% of the health care workers in non-shift work (p=0.0033). Regarding the high levels of depersonalization, the proportions of shift and non-shift health care workers were 55.8% and 40.7%, respectively (p=0.0297). Conclusions This study showed that shift work is a risk factor significantly associated with burnout among Jordanian military health care workers who reported a high level of burnout. Specifically, the highest level of burnout was observed on the emotional exhaustion dimension compared to personal accomplishment and depersonalization. More future studies are encouraged in which the development of burnout syndrome is recognized over time by evaluating detailed characteristics of shift work context and revealing better understanding of burnout causes. More clinical trial and intervention studies are recommended to develop programs and to promote new policies and practices on shift work that aim to prevent and mitigate burnout which is one of the significant occupational health problems among health care workers.

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Burnout, shift work, health care workers, military, Maslach Burnout Inventory
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