The Relationship between Occupational Burnout and Emotional Intelligence among Imam Sajjad(A) Hospital Staffs in Tehran

In today’s contemporary world، one of the most important factors in reducing individual performance and organizational productivity is burnout syndrome that could threaten the health of employees in work places particularly in health centers where they face many stressors such as shift work، ill patients and emergency situations and role ambiguity. But some of the personality factors such as emotional intelligence are important in reducing the incidence of this syndrome. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between occupational burnout and emotional intelligence among hospital staffs. Methods and Materials: This cross-sectional study was conducted with a sample of 200 individuals from Imam Sajjad Hospital staffs. Instruments applied for data collection were Maslach & Jackson questionnaire to assess occupational burnout and Sibria Shiring questionnaire to measure emotional intelligence as well as checklist for demographic factors. Pearson correlation was used in SPSS 17 for data analysis. The sample comprised 200 nurses included 122 women and 78 men. We found that there were significant negative relationships between occupational burnout and emotional intelligence (p≤ 0. 05). In comparison to men، women achieved higher score for emotional intelligence and lower ones in occupational burnout scale. The results of the present study indicated that emotional intelligence can effectively reduce occupational burnout among hospital staff. This result is important because emotional intelligence is one of the personality components that can be increased with training. Therefore، holding courses with the aim of improving emotional intelligence skills can significantly decrease the incidence and severity of burnout syndrome among health care employees.