MIDWIVES’ PROFESSIONAL BURNOUT AND WORK ENVIRONMENT SATISFACTION

Abstract

Aim. To assess midwives’ professional burnout and work environment satisfaction. Methods. An anonymous survey study was carried out in Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in the Hospital of Lithuanian University of Health Sciences Kauno klinikos. A hundred surveys were distributed among midwives, 80 of them were correctly completed. The response rate was 80%. Statistical analysis was performed by using IMB SPSS 20.0 software. Descriptive analysis was performed. The differences between data were considered statistically significant when p < 0.05. Results. During the conducted research, it was found that almost half of the midwives of the investigated organization experienced personal and professional burnout related to work and patients.The possibility of personal burnout increases significantly for midwives who work only in the inpatient setting (p = 0.031). Work and patient-related burnout occurs significantly more often in midwives who have less than 10 years of work experience and work more than 12 hours a day (p = 0.005). The majority of midwives were satisfied with their work environment. The majority of midwives were satisfied with the available job resources. The midwives were the least satisfied with the development opportunities. Satisfaction with the available job resources and the quality of management was higher among midwives with a higher university education (p = 0.015). Satisfaction with midwife – physician relationship was higher among midwives with a higher non-university education (p = 0.015). Midwives working in an outpatient clinic were more satisfied with development opportunities (p = 0.04). A statistically significant negative relationship was found between midwives’ burnout related to patients and relationships with physicians. Midwives who were satisfied with the midwife-physician relationship were less likely to experience patient-related burnout. No links were found between midwives› professional burnout and satisfaction with the work environment. Conclusions. Almost half of the studied midwives had a certain subscale of professional burnout, but the vast majority of midwives were satisfied with their work environment. Education, working hours, workplace and experience determined satisfaction with the work environment and the occurrence of professional burnout.