Burnout syndrome among anesthesia providers in Rwanda: a quantitative analytical cross sectional study

Abstract

Burnout syndrome is defined as a syndrome consisting of combination of specifically work-related emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalization (DP) and reduced personal accomplishment (PA) (1). Burnout can lead to poor-quality work, job turnover, and personal and family problems. Performance-shaping factors, including workload, role conflict, lack of community, and value conflicts can predispose to exhaustion, depersonalization, and “in- efficacy” (2). More specifically, the negative consequences associated with burnout may affect the person, the institution, and the patients. Those include tiredness, impaired alertness, frequent medical errors, mood disturbances such as irritability, strained interpersonal relationships at work, low staff recruitment, frequent staff transfers, reduced quality of service to patients, substance misuse and suicidal ideation (3), (4). The prevalence of burnout among anesthetists is higher than other specialties due to higher stress associated with the vigilance required to manage emergency situations and to monitor patients under anesthesia. Anesthesia providers may be at particular risk for burnout given increasing performance pressure and staff shortages, care of extremely ill patients, and work with extreme responsibility (2). As example, in a study done among anesthesia residents in USA, the risk of Burnout out was high in 41% of anesthesia residents with being female, working more than 70 hours per week, and drinking alcohol for more than 5 times a week increasing risk (5). Other studies found the level of burnout among anesthetists of 21.0% and 10.4% respectively in South Africa and Bresil (6), (7). Most previous studies of burnout among anesthetists have been done in other countries, however there is no study done on burnout among anesthesia providers in Rwanda. We designed the current study to evaluate the prevalence of burnout among anesthesia providers in Rwanda and to determine factors associated with burnout in order to propose recommendations about interventions that can improve those factors.