Burnout Syndrome among Medical Workers at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), Nairobi, Kenya

Hardly, is there published work on burnout syndrome in Kenya to date, a condition that had not been classified by the ICD-10 or DSM-IV TR 2000. Burnout was first described by Maslach in 1976 and the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) first used as a research instrument in 1982. This is a recent development and it partly explains the scanty information about the syndrome among medical workers in Kenya. In the absence of published local scientific information, the ability to diagnose burnout syndrome has been limited.

Events in which health workers all over Kenya had been agitating for better terms of service followed by their exodus to other countries including South Africa, could suggest a possibility of their dissatisfaction at work whose underlying cause may be burnout syndrome. Studies on burnout syndrome among medical workers mainly in Europe and the United States of America have demonstrated that all cadres of health personnel suffer from various levels of burnout syndrome. Burnout syndrome, or cumulative stress, is defined as a state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion caused by depletion of one’s ability to cope with one’s environment, resultant from one’s responses to the on-going demand characteristics (stress) of the medical workers’ daily lives.  Read more.......................