Burnout Among Healthcare Providers in a Comprehensive Cancer Center in Saudi Arabia

• Published in: Curēus (Palo Alto, CA) Vol. 11; no. 1; p. e3987
• Main Authors: Bany Hamdan, Abdullah, Alshammary, Sami, Javison, Sherwynn, Tamani, Jesusa, AlHarbi, Musa
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Cureus Inc 30-01-2019; Cureus
• Subjects: Burnout; Cancer; Communication; Demographics; Environmental Health; Likert scale; Miscellaneous; Occupational stress; Oncology; Palliative care; Participation; Patient safety; Patient satisfaction; Physicians; Professionals; Questionnaires; Skill development; Vacations; Work environment; Saudi Arabia; Riyadh Saudi Arabia; distress; strategies; exhaustion; cancer; burnout; oncology healthcare professionals; healthcare
• ISSN: 2168-8184; 2168-8184
• DOI: 10.7759/cureus.3987

Background Overwork has grave consequences for staff health, either physically or psychologically. Burnout has an impact on health care turnover, patient safety, patient satisfaction, and patient perception towards health professionals. This study aims to assess the prevalence of burnout, psychosocial distress, occupational predictors, perceived causes, and suggested strategies for preventing or reducing its impact of burnout on oncology healthcare workers. Materials and methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted among various oncology healthcare professionals using the Maslach Burnout and Kessler-10 Inventory tools to derive the data. Results A total of 157 participants represented with an overall response rate of 62.8%. Among all the respondents, it showed that 28.7% of them reported moderate to severe burnout. Moreover, 32.9% of the participants with patient contact had experienced moderate to severe burnout, and the same burnout level was reported by 55% of the respondents with no patient contact. Physicians (35.1%) were recorded to have the highest rate of burnout, followed by nurses (29%) and allied healthcare professionals (27%). Also, exhaustion and emotional exhaustion subscales were higher to those samples without patient contact (33.3%) compared to samples with patient contact (25.5%). On the other hand, 28.7% of those samples with patient contact exhibited a high level of depersonalization, while 42.9% of non-patient contact samples recorded a high level of cynicism. Both sub-samples scored more than half in personal accomplishment (73.4%) and the related professional efficacy (57%), merging the average and high-level scores. The proportion of non-patient contact respondents who had experienced psychiatric symptoms was 10%. Conclusions There was a significant number of King Fahad Medical City Comprehensive Cancer Center healthcare professionals who experienced a substantial level of burnout. On the other hand, the respondents listed different strategies to reduce the level of burnout. These strategies are self-defined, such as improved access to leave, attention to staff psychosocial and training needs, and emphasizing the importance of regular communication skills training. The management needs to take action for the area of improvement based on the results.