Association between Job Satisfaction, Burnout, and Patient Safety Culture among Medical Staff of the Qom University of Medical Sciences in 2020, Iran

Some factors, such as burnout and job satisfaction, may affect patient safety culture. This study aimed to examine the association between burnout, job satisfaction and patient safety culture among medical staff of the Qom University of Medical Sciences in 2020.

This descriptive-correlative study was conducted on 248 medical staff members of the Qom University of Medical Sciences in 2020. The demographic checklist, the standard hospital survey on patient safety culture (HSOPSO), the Maslach burnout inventory, and the job satisfaction questionnaire were used for data collection. Content validity of the questionnaires was evaluated based on expert judgments. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 78 and 41% for the Maslach burnout questionnaire and the JDI questionnaire, respectively. Besides, the Pearson's correlation coefficient, the independent t-test, and the analysis of variance were used to analyze the data via SPSS software.

This study included 40 (16.1%) males and 208 (83.9%) females with the mean age of 32.04 ± 7.9 years. The mean and SD of the HSOPSO, JID, and frequency of burnout scores were 135.4 ± 10.1, 68.07 ± 13.2, and 53.8 ± 4.5, respectively. This study showed that job burnout has a significantly negative association with patient safety culture (r= -0.53, P < 0.000). In contrast, there was a statistically significant positive association between job satisfaction and patient safety culture (r= 0.643, P < 0.000).

The findings of this study indicated that both factors of job satisfaction and burnout might play a significant role in patient safety. Thus, top medical managers must provide appropriate conditions for employees to improve patient safety.