Study of burnout syndrome, job satisfaction and related factors among health care workers in rural areas of Southeastern Iran

BACKGROUND: Burnout syndrome is a Psycho-somatic state resulting from prolonged exposure to job stressors that leads to negative self-concept, Job dissatisfaction and lack of communication with the client. Rural health centers because of lack of facilities and lack of knowledge of the service users are characterized by a high level of work-related stress, a factor known to increase the risk of burnout syndrome. The purpose of this study was to determine burnout syndrome and Job Satisfaction among health care workers in rural areas of southeastern Iran. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study that has been conducted among 225 of the healthcare workers with more than five years of experience using simple random sampling method. Data were collected by a Maslach's burnout inventory and Smith's job satisfaction questionnaire. Data were analyzed using dependent and independent t-test, one-way ANOVA and Pearson correlation coefficient. RESULTS: The results of this study showed that the rate of burnout and job satisfaction score in health centers in rural areas was moderate. In job satisfaction, the highest score was related to the colleague and the lowest score was related to salaries and benefits. The emotional exhaustion had a negative significant effect on job satisfaction (p < 0.01). CONCLUSION: Considering the importance of rural community health, burnout status of health care workers should be improved. It is necessary to provide appropriate interventions to decrease stress relating to role conflict, professional communications, factors related to the families and work load.