Burnout In South-Western Nigeria: A Preliminary Report Among Nurses And Teachers

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the magnitude of job burnout among members of two professional groups and generate baseline information on the concept in Nigeria. The sample consisted of 100 subjects (fifty matched pairs of psychiatric nurses and secondary school students). Each was assessed with a questionnaire detailing socio-demographic variables, the Executive Burnout Scale (EBS) and the Job Satisfaction Scale. The teachers had significantly higher mean score (65.74) than the nurses (47.40) on total Job Burnout (p=0.002). The teachers also had higher mean scores on General Burnout (p = 0.018), Somatic Burnout (p=0.005) and Interpersonal Burnout (p=0.003), which are the three subscales of the EBS. Although, the teachers experienced higher burnout than the nurses, no significant difference was observed on job satisfaction between the two groups (p=0.297), suggesting that the relationship between occupational stress and job satisfaction is a complex one. In addition, burnout was not related to sex, marital status, age and length of service among the subjects. The significant difference in job burnout between these two professional groups should stimulate studies on larger samples of workers identified as ‘high risk' groups from previous reports.

Keywords: Burnout, Nurses, Teachers and South-Western Nigeria

IFE PsychologIA Vol. 16 (2) 2008: pp. 178-187