Occupational burnout prevalence and associated factors among healthcare workers in Nizhny Novgorod region: The Foundation “VBlagodarnost” pilot program “Taking care of healthcare”

Medical staff shortage and outflow due to occupational burnout is a global challenge for the health care system.

Aim. To assess the burnout prevalence and its factors among medical workers of the health care system of Nizhny Novgorod region in order to develop an evidence-based burnout prevention program.

 Materials and methods. The study involved 25,070 unique respondents, health care personnel of 148 state medical facilities in Nizhny Novgorod region, which accounted for 70.9 % of the total number of medical workers in the public health sector of the region. The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) questionnaire in versions for medical workers and management personnel, adapted into russian by N.E. Vodopyanova and E.С. Starchenkova, was used as a burnout diagnostic technique. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS Statistics v. 26 (Chicago, IL), StatTech v. 3.1.6 (StatTech LLC, Russia).

 Results. High and extremely high degree of occupational burnout syndrome was diagnosed in 46.7 % of medical workers. Among management personnel burnout was revealed in 49.8 % of respondents, among physicians – in 53.5 %, among nurses – in 44.4 %. Factors associated with burnout among medical workers were female gender, living and working in the city, financial status, bad habits and chronic diseases; working conditions: overtime work, inability to take a break and lack of rest lounges for workers; and wage rate. For the management personnel the occupational difficulties that showed the most pronounced associations with burnout were the lack of satisfying work results (OR = 6.7, p < 0.001) and problems with team management (OR = 6.1, p < 0.001); for physicians: being worried about their own health (OR = 5.8, p < 0.001) and monotonous work tasks (OR = 6.3, p < 0.001); for nursing staff: being worried about their own health (OR = 4.5, p < 0.001) and inadequate organization of work (OR = 4.4, p < 0.001).

Conclusion. Our study revealed the high prevalence of burnout among medical workers in the public health care system of Nizhny Novgorod region. This regional study presents the data necessary to develop a burnout prevention program for health care workers, including the management personnel.

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