Prevalence and Risk Factors Associated with Burnout Syndrome among General Surgery Residents in Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia

Burnout is prevalent in the workplace and healthcare settings are no exception due to high work demand, limited control and high incidence of work-home interference.In the general surgery department, burnout among residents have been reported due to the nature of the work and environmental conditions where residents are constantly exposed in.There are several negative implications of burnout to health care professionals, and hospital residents have reported negative repercussions of chronic stress to their learning experience and performance in the hospital setting.Aside from causing burnout, chronic stress can also impair social functioning and efficiency in performing tasks related to healthcare.In Saudi Arabia, burnout caused a negative impact on medical trainees' learning experiences consequently affecting their ability to provide safe patient care due to excessive fatigue and irritability caused by burnout.The respondents of the study were general surgery residents who were training at the General Surgery Wards in the eastern region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.The research instrument used in this study is the English-language Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS), which is a 7-point Likert scale.A total of 65 participants responded to the survey, with a response rate of 64%.Sociodemographic profile of general residents presented.it has been found out that only feelings of failure at work and higher number of shifts per month contribute to a higher likelihood of feeling burnout in the general surgery ward.In this study, failure in any of residency promotion exam exhibited an association with scoring high burnout in the personal achievement dimension.