Assessing burnout among health care professionals in a tertiary hospital in Kohalpur, Nepal: a cross-sectional study

Background: Burnout is a commonly observed psychological phenomenon that occurs due to prolonged stressors at work, which poses a risk to the health of the working population, despite this, it has been neglected due to the growing work pace and work demands imposed on the workers. Low patient care and safety are due to burnout in healthcare professionals, which could hamper their personal lives, as well as, quality of care. Methodology: The aim of this study is to assess burnout among healthcare professionals and compare the three components of risk of burnout: Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization, and Personal Achievement. A cross-sectional study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital, among 196 healthcare professionals comprising doctors and nurses, who met the inclusion criteria. A strata was developed based on the profession (doctors and nurses and then using the convenience sampling technique data was collected via google forms using the Maslach Burnout Inventory questionnaire. Result: This study depicted burnout in 9.7% of the participants (doctors 10.6% and 9.6% nurses), 5.23% higher in the surgery department, and younger age group (10.6%). For the establishment of burnout there need to be high levels of emotional exhaustion (14.8%) and/or depersonalization (22.4%) and/or low levels of personal achievement (12.20%). Emotional Exhaustion was associated with gender, number of working hours, and profession. Whereas, Depersonalization associated with profession and Personal Achievement is associated with age and years of work experience Both emotional exhaustion and personal achievement were associated with average working hours per day. Conclusion: The risk factors in Burnout using the Maslach Burnout Inventory showed a low risk of burnout among healthcare professionals in Nepal. The main sources of burnout included increased working hours, decreased work experience, and an increase in average working hours and age.