The Prevalence of Physicians’ Burnout Syndrome in Ibrahim Malik Teaching Hospital, Khartoum, Sudan, 2020

Background: Burnout is described as exploratory and qualitatively as a state of emotional exhaustion due to excessive demands on energy, strength or sources in workplace. It is characterized by physical symptoms such as exhaustion, fatigue, frequent headache, and gastrointestinal disorders, sleeplessness and behavioral signs include frustration, anger, a suspicious attitude omnipotence or overconfidence, cynicism and signs of depression.

Methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional hospital-based study. The data was collected from 100 Physicians by a questionnaire specially prepared for the purposes of this study. Filling out the questionnaires was distributed by the research team in person. The questionnaire consisted of 27 questions, with 9 questions attributed to each of the 3 risk factors (Depersonalization, Emotional Exhaustion, and Personal Accomplishment). Data was analyzed by using SPSS program version 26 and the result was represented in tables and figures.

Results: (72%) of the participant were females and (28 %) were males, age ranged between 2 and more than 51 years, age was categorized into three groups 20–30 (73%), 31–40 (20%) and 41–50 (5%) and more than 50 (2%). Participants were distributed in 6 different specialties with Pediatrics as the most represented specialty (18%). In the level of profession most of the participant were house officer (42%) followed by registrar (32%) and the least were specialist (4%). Levels of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, (77 %) of the sample had a high level of (EE), (54%) had a high level of (DP), and (14 %) had a low level of (PA). (19%) of the residents included in this study had a high level of burnout in all three do- mains of the index, and (93%) had a high level in at least one of the three. The high level of each burnout components distributed according to the research different demographic variables and the results of the inferential statistical tests. Males had higher levels of EE (82.8%), and DP (55%), and lower levels of PA (14.9%) than females (71.6%), (54%), (12.1%) respectively.

Conclusion: In conclusion, our study showed that burn out is highly prevalent among Ibrahim Malik hospital doctors, while female doctors had a higher degree burnout than males. Among the different professional levels, the highest percentage of burnout belonged to GPs and the lowest belonged to consultants .ER doctors suffered the most from burnout, whereas surgeons suffered the least. Several factors attributing to the burnout symptoms of these doctors have been identified.