Profiling burnout dimensions and associated sociodemographic variables among medical and health sciences academic staff in a South African university

Abstract

Background: Despite the high academic ratings of South African universities, research on burnout in academia, particularly among health professional academics, is limited. This gap in scholarly knowledge underscores the need for immediate studies in this area.
Aim: The study assesses the burnout dimensions and demographics of health professional academics.
Setting: Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Walter Sisulu University, Eastern Cape, South Africa.
Methods: A quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional research design was followed. Respondents were recruited via the census (n = 56). The Modified Maslach Burnout Inventory (MMBI) Likert scale questionnaire was used. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences was used to analyse the data: Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was employed to compare mean burnout scores across multiple categorical independent variables. The chi-square test was used for associations between categorical variables. The significance level was set at p < 0.05.
Results: Respondents experienced moderate levels of emotional exhaustion (EE; 46.8%), low-to-moderate levels of depersonalisation (DP; 40.4%) and moderate levels of personal accomplishment (PA; 42.6%). There is no statistically significant difference in burnout dimensions across age groups (p = EE: 0.466, DP: 0.414, PA: 0.467), gender (p = EE: 0.917, DP: 0.593, PA: 0.952), type of degree (p = EE: 0.909, DP: 0.657, PA: 0.939), academic position (p = EE: 0.982, DP: 0.907, PA: 0.430), work experience (p = EE: 0.730, DP: 0.951, PA: 0.905).
Conclusion: The findings suggest that health professional academics are either at risk for burnout or are experiencing moderate levels of burnout.
Contribution: Staff welfare can be improved through strategies to reduce work-related stress, provide mental health support, and promote a healthy work–life balance.