Personal and workplace factors associatedwith physicians’ burnout in Guyana
Introduction
Background: Guyana is an upper-middle income country in SouthAmerica with healthcare system characterized by limited resources andbrain-drain. This study aimed to identify burnout risk factors inGuyanesephysicians.
Method
Methods: On-line survey distributed to the registered physiciansviaNational Medical Council assessed burnout with OldenburgBurnoutInventory (OLBI) and coping behaviors with Brief CopingOrientation toProblem Experienced (Brief COPE) Questionnaire. Additional factorsincluded socio-demographic characteristics, satisfaction with workplace(salary, colleagues support, etc. ) and awareness of public mental healthservices Associations with burnout score were assessed with multivariablelinear regression.
Results
Results: Of 170 physicians, 94% had burnout score ≥35 (a burnout cut-offpoint). Adjustment for personal and workplace factors, perception ofpublic mental health services and coping behaviors revealed that higherburnout score was significantly associated with intention to quit ( .= 5.44,95% confidence interval (CI) = 3.27 – 7.60), low job fulfilment ( .= 4.92,95%CI= 3.17 – 6.66), and number of maladaptive (denial, substance use,behavioural disengagement, venting, self-blame, self-distraction) copingbehaviors (. = 0.88 (95%CI, 0.27 – 1.48).
Conclusion
Conclusions: Worryingly high percentage of physicians were identified asburned out, which requires urgent attention of health care administratorsand policy makers. Strong association between burnout score and intentionto quit suggests that reducing burnout may prevent physicians’ brain-drain. Introducing mental health promotion campaigns are recommendedto increase awareness of mental health services, self-care, and adaptivecoping behaviors to substitute the use of maladaptive coping behaviors.