[Burnout among caregivers in the Yaounde Central Hospital, Cameroon].

INTRODUCTION

Burnout or burnout syndrome is a public health problem in Cameroon. It manifests itself by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and diminished personal accomplishment of the subject. It affects most healthcare workers (HCW) and the consequences are numerous. In Cameroon in general, and Yaounde Central Hospital (HCY) in particular, in recent years, healthcare workers have continued to express dissatisfaction with their working conditions through strikes and threats of various kinds. The care of patients is suboptimal with sometimes dramatic consequences and ethical concerns.

METHODS

Our cross-sectional study aimed to determine the factors that are associated with burnout among healthcare personnel (HCW) of HCY. To do this, for one month, we administered to these HCWs our questionnaire designed according to the theoretical models of MASLACH and SIEGRIST. We were able to obtain information from 104 caregivers; data entry and analysis was done with SPSS 20.

RESULTS

The results show that HCWs of four departments of HCY have similar manifestations to those found in the literature and the prevalence of burnout syndrome amon HCWs of HCY was 63%. Seven factors were statistically significantly associated with burnout syndrome among HCWs in HCY: the department (care unit) the HCW was assigned to (OR = 3.93, 1.16-13.24, p-value = 0.027); marital status (OR: 2.56, 1.22 - 5.39, p-value = 0.049); the effort-reward imbalance (OR: 2.31, 1.10 - 4.84, p-value = 0.026); having received been threatened physically or verbally (OR: 3.75, 1.49 - 9.41, 0.005); maintaining the balance between private and professional life (OR: 3.41, 1.19- 10.7, p-value = 0.038); frequency of forgetfulness (OR: 4.25 -1.33, 7.91, p-value = 0.002) and attribution of errors to working conditions (OR: 2.05, 1.52 - 24.0; -value = 0.011).

CONCLUSION

Burnout is common among HCWs of HCY and is likely to keep increasing if nothing is done. Prevention and promotion strategies for occupational health are strongly needed in aspects of improving working conditions; making good political and managerial decisions; improving relationships between caregivers and caregivers-hierarchy and constant research, monitoring and control of risk factors.