Prevalence of burnout syndrome and its health effects among academic staff at the Kenya Medical Training College, Nairobi Campus
Abstract
Background: Long period of work overload leads to chronic fatigue and stress, a precursor of
burnout syndrome and consequent other health problems like psychological distress. Other
personal or job related factors may also precipitate the development of burnout syndrome and
other mental illnesses. Understanding the courses of these health problems among staff can allow
an organisation's management to develop appropriate strategies to prevent or alleviate these
problems.
General Objective: The aims of carrying out this study were to determine the prevalence of and
factors associated with burnout syndrome among the KMTC Nairobi Campus academic staff.
The study also sought to determine the health effects of the burnout syndrome among the
respondents
Design and Setting: A cross-sectional sample survey that recruited a total population of all
academic staff in all the 16 academic departments at KMTC Nairobi Campus.
Methodology
Three instruments were used which included a Social demographic (SDQ) questionnaire which
the researcher developed. It collected information related to personal particulars; subject's duties,
responsibilities and their work schedules. The Maslach burnout inventory (MBI) a patented
instrument which is designed to assess the three aspects of burnout syndrome and the general
health questionnaire (GHQ) which measures current burnout syndrome health effects exhibited
by psychological distress.
The researcher observed all ethical considerations and the self administered instruments were
used to collect data.
Data was analysed using SPSS version 14 utilising descriptive and inferential statistics. Results
were presented in form of tables, bar charts, pie charts and narratives.
Results: All lecturers at KMTC Nairobi Campus were found to have burnout syndrome; sixty
61.5% had high and 34.9% had average levels of burnout syndrome (p = 0.007). This contributed
to the respondents developing other health problems where 16% had severe and 5.7% had some
psychological distress respectively (p = 0.036).
Eighty five percent (85%) of the respondents had emotional exhaustion (p=0.01). All the
respondents had high levels of depersonalisation, and 67.6% had low levels of personal
accomplishment indicative of low self evaluation (p=0.036). The highest risk factor for
developing burnout syndrome was being an academic lecturer at KMTC, being over 41 years
and having worked at KMTC for over 6 years (p=0.000), not taking annual leave (p= 0.001) and
being married with 1-5 (p = 0.036). Other factor included; being married with the highest
professional qualification of a diploma or higher diploma (p= 0.009), working more hours
beyond normal (p = 0.023), absence of social support (p = 0.049) and undertaking studies as the
respondents was on full time employment (p=0.029). The protective factors were working fewer
hours beyond normal, being single, being male, not taking part time studies and taking annual
leave. Presence of burnout syndrome was positively correlated to the development of
psychological distress (p=0.0l).
Conclusion: All academic lecturers at KMTC Nairobi campus had burnout syndrome; 65.1%
had high while 34.9% had average levels of burnout; accepting the alternative hypothesis that
Kenya Medical Training College academic staff suffer from high levels of burnout syndrome.
The Prevalence of burnout syndrome among KMTC academic staff was higher than that found at
KNH medical Practitioners and in developed countries in Europe and North America .. High
levels of emotional exhaustion may lead to the lecturers impacting negatively on the students of
whom they are expected to be role model. Presence of burnout syndrome was found to have
health effects of psychological distress among the respondents. The high prevalence rates of
burnout syndrome and psychological distress among the respondents greatly affects work
performance. This was evidenced by respondent's absenteeism from work, frequent visits to the
doctors and taking sick leave. This meant that the respondents were occasionally not at their
places of work when they were meant to be.
Citation
Degree in Master of Science in Clinical Psychology of The University of Nairobi, 2008Publisher
University of Nairobi. Department of Psychiatry