A study of job stress and burnout and related factors in the hospital personnel of Iran

INTRODUCTION: Job stress has become one of the main factors in reducing efficiency and the loss of human resources that may cause physical and psychological adverse effects in employees. Hospital personnel are facing different stressful events, such as birth, pain and death, in a single day. Hence, identifying the job stress rates and related factors may be effective in offering proper strategies. Therefore, the present research was done to study the rate of job stress and burnout in hospital personnel and compare some of the related factors in hospitals personnel of Yazd, Iran. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 306 hospital personnel (Male: 114, Female: 192) in Yazd in 2015–16. The data were collected using a demographic questionnaire, Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), and Hospital Stress (HSS-35). SPSS-16 software and Pearson-product moment correlation and independent-samples t-test were used for data analysis. RESULTS: The mean job stress score was above average. The mean burnout dimensions that were above average included emotional exhaustion (21.7 ± 7.27), depersonalization (9.61 ± 3.74) and personal accomplishment (26.80 ± 6.17). While Pearson correlation revealed a significant positive relationship between job stress, emotional exhaustion, and depersonalization, there was a negative relationship between job stress and personal accomplishment (p < 0.01). Independent-samples t-test results showed that the rate of job stress, emotional exhaustion, and depersonalization in males is higher than females, married people have more emotional exhaustion than single ones, and, finally, health staff have more job stress than administrative staff. At the same time, the administrative staff and females have better personal accomplishment than other groups (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Since the rate of job stress in hospital personnel is worrying and it has adverse effects on personnel health, effective strategies on physical and mental health, such as employment support and stress management training, seem crucial to enhance physical and psychological health of hospital personnel.