The Correlation of Character Traits with Job Burnout among Beheshti Hospital Nurses in Kashan during 2015

Occupational burnout is one of the complications of work and a psychological syndrome including emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and feeling of inadequacy. Furthermore, personality traits such as openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism can affect the degree of occupational burnout. This study is to investigate the relationship between these two factors.

This descriptive study was performed on 87 nurses from Kashan Beheshti Hospital. We used Neo and Maslach questionnaires to investigate the personality traits and occupational burnout. Sampling was performed by a simple random sampling method, and the data were collected by Neo and Maslach questionnaires. Statistical analysis was performed using Chi‑square, Fisher exact test, independent t‑test, and Pearson correlation coefficient.

In general, there is a significant relationship between different aspects of occupational burnout with personality traits. There was no significant relationship between occupational burnout and age (P < 0.262), while there was a relationship between occupational desirability and age. There was no significant relationship between the frequency and severity of occupational burnout in the various aspects of age, sex, and marital status of nurses. There is also no relationship between personality traits and these three factors.

The study showed that the personality traits of nurses are effective in their occupational burnout. Furthermore, compare to depersonalization, emotional exhaustion, and feeling of inadequacy in nurses is more related to personality traits and the modification of work environment and reduction of work stress are recommended for these employees.