Journal of North Khorasan

Abstract Background & objectives: Occupational burnout is a syndrome in response to chronic stress and is seen mostly in human service professions. It includes three components: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and personal dis- achievement. The aim of this study is to determine the rate of burnout syndrome within the mentioned community and its relationship with some demographic and occupational factors. Material & Methods: We invited all midwives who were working in public health centers and hospitals to participate in the study. 200 midwives filled Maslach questionnaire completely. Results: 56% of the individuals felt emotionally exhausted, 53.5% were depersonalized and 60.5% did not feel a sense of personal accomplishment in their jobs. The factor of workplace was found to be strongly related to all components of occupational burnout. The midwives who had more duration of midwifery experience, working more hours per month, had rotating shifts were more likely experience burnout syndrome than others. Conclusion: Our results suggest that improvement in the midwives' work conditions especially in the hospitals can help to prevent burnout, job dissatisfaction and subsequent complication. In addition, there is a dire need to help midwives to learn effective coping skills with their job conditions.