Determinants of staff burnout rate in the case of the Ministry of Health, Ethiopia: A cross-sectional study (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Burnout is now a global epidemic among healthcare professionals, with more than 50% of physicians and one-third of nurses in various parts of the world having reported symptoms. This disease weakens clinical care and may worsen the shortage of healthcare workers. Whereas prior studies have looked at burnout within a facility or department, we aimed to explore it as an organizational phenomenon by focusing on staff working in Ethiopia's Ministry of Health (MoH). This study provides a brief history of burnout rate as well as a summary of its major associated factors and prevalence among Ethiopian Ministry of Health (MoH) employees. It also contains a summary of strategies that healthcare providers, organizations, and policymakers would use to combat the epidemic. The study aims to assess staff burnout rate and associated factors in the Case of the Ministry of Health-Ethiopia. OBJECTIVE To analyze the current level of burnout rate and determinant factors among employees in MoH METHODS We did a cross-sectional quantitative study and targeted all employees of the MoH. A total of 309 MoH workers were included in the study, and all staff selected completed a well-structured electronic questionnaire based on the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Data were analyzed on STATA version 14, and a p-value < 0.05 was taken as a significant cutoff point. RESULTS The burnout prevalence among MoH-Ethiopia staff was 44.14%. The primary findings linked to the high burnout rate included depersonalization (OR= 0.27; 95% CI, 0.19–0.38), level of participation in decision-making (OR = 0.37; 95% CI, 0.16–0.83), educational level (OR=1.34; 95% CI, 1.10–1.80), and work experience (OR = 0.36; 95% CI, 0.14–0.98). CONCLUSIONS The study concluded that a surge in teamwork, high-level participation in decision-making, and near residency to the workplace leads to reduced emotional exhaustion and reduced depersonalization, while simultaneously increasing professional accomplishment. Therefore, this study presents a solid foundation for decreasing burnout syndrome in healthcare that can be implemented by successfully increasing levels of teamwork quality, sufficient salary, decision-making involvement, full staff awareness of organizational restructuring, and positive leadership roles. CLINICALTRIAL There is no trial registration.