The Relationship between the Different Dimensions of Burnout and Personal and Professional Factors in Midwives

Burnout is a breakdown that affects on person's biopsychosociallife. Midwifery has stressful nature therefore the purpose of this study was evaluation of burnout dimensions and their relation with professional and personal factors in midwives.

This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2012 on 300 midwives working in educational hospitals and health centers affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Data were collected using a researcher made questionnaire including professional and personal factors and the Maslach burnout inventory questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS software version 16, independent t-tests, ANOVA, Tukey, and multivariate regression.P value less than or equal to 0.05 was considered significant.

Significant relationships were found in age and number of children with depersonalization (p=0.003 and p=0.013, respectively); education, shift work and overtime rate with emotional exhaustion (p=0.05, (p=0.003 and p=0.003, respectively); housing status with individual failure (p=0.004); workplace with three dimensions of burnout (emotional exhaustion (p=0.00), depersonalization (p=0.05) and individual failure (p=0.04)) and also interest in job with three dimensions of burnout (emotional exhaustion (p=0.00), depersonalization (p=0.004) and individual failure (p=0.002)). In regression analysis, age, housing status, workplace, shift work and interest in job showed significant positive correlation with dimensions of burnout (p≤0.05).

Level of decreased personal accomplishment in midwives is high and professional and personal factors such as age, education level, number of children, housing status, workplace, shift work, overtime rate and interest in job have significant relationship with burnout and its dimensions.