Department of Anaesthesia, National Orthopaedic Hospital, Enugu, Nigeria.
Department of Community Medicine, College of Health Sciences, Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki, Nigeria.
BMC Health Serv Res. 2020 Sep 14;20(1):863. doi: 10.1186/s12913-020-05710-8.
Healthcare workers are a burnout-prone occupational group and the prevalence is particularly high among physicians. With the prevailing low physician-patient ratio in Nigeria which has worsened with the recent wave of physician emigration, among other socio-economic constraints; a setting for high physician burnout may have been nurtured. Our survey set out to determine the prevalence of burnout among physicians practicing in Nigeria, ascertain the factors that were associated with the development of burnout and evaluate the respondents' perceived impact of physician burnout on patient safety.
We used the Oldenburg burnout inventory as the measurement tool for burnout in the cross-sectional study conducted between November and December, 2019 among physicians in five tertiary health institutions in Nigeria. A 5- point Likert-type scale was used to evaluate the participants rating of their perceived impact of physician burnout on patient safety. Data entry and analysis were done using IBM Statistical package for social sciences software version 25 and the level of statistical significance was determined by a p value < 0.05.
The response rate was 61% (535/871), and burnout prevalence was 75.5% (404/535). Majority of the physicians (74.6%) perceive that physician burnout could impact patient safety. Physicians' professional grade, age and years in practice, but not specialty, gender or marital status were associated with the exhaustion domain, whereas only the physicians' age was associated with the disengagement domain of burnout. No socio-demographic or work-related characteristics determined overall burnout in our respondents.
Physician burnout in Nigeria is high and pervasive, and this should alert physicians to be wary of their general and mental health status. Public health policy should address this development which has implications for patient safety, physician safety and healthcare system performance.
医疗工作者是易出现倦怠的职业群体，医生群体中的这一比例尤其高。由于尼日利亚目前医生与患者的比例较低，且随着最近一波医生移民潮以及其他社会经济限制因素，医生倦怠的情况可能更为严重。我们的调查旨在确定在尼日利亚执业的医生中倦怠的流行率，确定与倦怠发展相关的因素，并评估受访者对医生倦怠对患者安全的感知影响。
我们在 2019 年 11 月至 12 月期间，在尼日利亚的五所三级医疗机构中，使用奥登堡倦怠量表作为横断面研究中的测量工具，对医生进行了调查。采用 5 分李克特量表评估参与者对医生倦怠对患者安全的感知影响的评分。使用 IBM 统计软件包社会科学版 25 进行数据录入和分析，通过 p 值<0.05 确定统计学显著性水平。
应答率为 61%（535/871），倦怠的流行率为 75.5%（404/535）。大多数医生（74.6%）认为医生倦怠会影响患者安全。医生的专业级别、年龄和工作年限，但不是专业、性别或婚姻状况，与疲惫领域有关，而只有医生的年龄与倦怠的脱离领域有关。在我们的受访者中，没有任何社会人口统计学或工作相关特征决定了整体倦怠。
尼日利亚的医生倦怠现象普遍且严重，这应该提醒医生警惕他们的一般和心理健康状况。公共卫生政策应该解决这一发展，这对患者安全、医生安全和医疗保健系统的绩效都有影响。
