Paper Sample on Burnout, Turnover Intention and Saudi Arabia

Introduction

The main aim of this study is to find out how burnout has influenced the turnover intention in Saudi Arabia. Various databases were queried for articles on the topic and written in English between 2000 and 2020. The results showing the studies that were done using the Maslach burnout inventory were selected. The study shows the inadequacy of research on the topic in all dimensions, including how emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and low personal accomplishment affect the turnover intention in the field of pharmacy in Saudi Arabia.

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Background

As stated by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “burnout resulting from job-related stress is defined as physical, mental and emotional exhaustion and considered concerning the perceived intensity of job-related events and professional depression.” (McAbee, 1991). Burnout is closely linked with other conditions like depression, drug, and alcohol abuse, and even suicide. There are severe implications to an organization such as reduced quantity and quality of work done, and to an individual such as sicknesses or accidents, the one main sequel to burnout is staff turnover (Han et al., 2015). Turnover intention is the likelihood of a person to quit the current work that one is employed at that moment (Kim, 2017). Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians are among the healthcare professionals at high risk of developing intense burnout. With increased job duties assigned to the pharmacists and the pharmacy technicians, they are most likely to suffer from exhaustion. One of the main reasons is the scanty population of Saudi Arabia who regards pharmacy as a career (Suleiman, 2015).

Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) is the main tool used to measure burnout (Williamson et la.,2018). It examines the burnout that occurs in the professional realm of different careers, comprehends the nature of burnout to come up with a measure to curb the burnout issue. Three main dimensions of burnout that are assessed by the MBI are emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalization (DP), and cynicism, and feelings of inefficacy (Williamson et la.,2018). Emotional exhaustion is the situation in which one experiences a feeling of being physically and emotionally drained and finds no means to restore oneself (Westwood et al., 2017). Depersonalization is where one manifests a distancing attitude towards those involved in the same work activities (Dyrbye et al., 2009). To work itself, this usually implies an irresistible need to take some time off but still is working. Inefficacy is when one contacts a self-analysis and results in the feeling of not being efficient at work assigned (Uludag & Yaratan, 2010). Usually feels incapable, thus lacking productiveness at work. Maslach Burnout Inventory- Human Survey for Medical Personnel is the form of Maslach Burnout Inventory used on pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. Its scale has exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment instead of inefficacy as the rest.

Albeit much assessment, surveys and reviews have been done in the US, Europe, and globally in general. Systematic review aiming to find out how turnover intention is linked to burnout among pharmacists is scanty in Saudi Arabia. The current systematic review includes both the Saudi Arabian and non-Saudi Arabian pharmacists and pharmaceutical technicians in Saudi Arabia but is from different countries.

Methods

The information written herein conforms to the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis (PRISMA) guidelines (Tricco et al., 2018).

Purpose of The Study

The main objective of the study was to find information regarding burnout among pharmacists and pharmaceutical technicians in Saudi Arabia. And, to find out how burnout is linked to turnover intention among those pharmacists.

Qualification Standards

The following were the criteria for including a paper: it had to be published in English, it had been published between the year 2000-2020. Also, the study carried out in the paper had to have used MBI method. Lastly the research was to contain studies from Saudi Arabia.

Data Source and Writings Search

In seeking for the information, the electronic databases that were queried included: PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, PubMed Central (PMC), UpToDate, EMedicine, global health, international pharmaceutical abstracts, Medline with full text, APA PsychINFO, CINAHL Plus with full text, Trip, Index Medicus for the eastern, Mediterranean Region (IMEMR) Saudi Medical Literature (SaudiMedLit), SaudiMedBase, Saudi Research Database (SRDB) World Health Organization, BMJ, Journal of family & community medicine, journal of health specialties, sage journals, journal of nature and science of medicine, Saudi Medical Journal. Websites that were manually searched included the world health organization-regional office for the eastern Mediterranean (WHO-EMRO) website and BMC public health websites. The relevant papers found were read through, and those that had other relevant references were followed through to seek more information. Also, the authors of the materials that were found to meet the criteria for qualifications standards were researched to get additional materials they may have written and uploaded elsewhere on the internet. The following combination of MeSH search keywords and terms were used while performing the querying of databases and searching through websites such as google and google scholar: "the relationship between burnout and turnover intention among pharmacists and pharmacy technicians in Saudi Arabia." "burnout." "burnout among pharmacists." "turnover intention among pharmacists." "causes of turnover intention among pharmacists." "burnout among health care professionals in Saudi Arabia." "turnover intention among healthcare professionals in Saudi Arabia." "Saudi pharmacists." "turnover intention." "professional burnout."

Screening of The Found Studies

The author screened the articles found by checking the title and abstracts with regards to qualification standards and then excluding those that seemed irrelevant and included only those that matched all the three criteria. These were papers written in English, and the cross-section study done used the Maslach Burnout Inventory. They also were supposed to have been published between the years 2000 and 2020.

Data Grouping Procedure and Data Elements

Data that was pulled out from each article that met the qualification standards were arrayed in a table that illustrated their summary in the following order: name of the author, when it was published (the year), sample size, feedback rate (the response), gender, and columns showing the prevalence of emotional exhaustion (E.E. %), prevalence of depersonalization (D.P. %), the prevalence of personal accomplishment (P.A. %) the turnover intent resulting from the burnout of the mentioned dimensions. Each dimension was analyzed on how it is related to turnover intention in this systematic review, where it was not specified in this article. It was referred to as general burnout. There was no need for ethical approval because the work was done based on data that is already published; hence it was already covered.

Results

During the first search, 26 papers were found. Each was evaluated, and the ones showing duplication or not matching the standards set were removed. Three articles were included in the review.

All the articles included were cross-sectional studies. They have a mean sample size of 255, and response means the rate of 48%. in all the three papers, the highest population with regards to gender were women (N=346), there was no paper indicating research on pharmacy technicians. Data indicated those married to be higher slightly than those single (N=240). Two articles did not show the distinction in population between the Saudi Arabia nationals and the non-Saudi Arabians. However, one of the articles indicated Saudi (N=59), while the non-Saudi had a sample size of N=22.

Discussion

The main objective of this work was to find out how burnout influences the rate of turnover intention among pharmacists and pharmaceutical technicians in Saudi Arabia. The finding showed a high turnover intent among the pharmacists, with a mean average of 44.9%. There was a significant variation among the age difference in one of the articles. However, in the other two, it showed no patterns in age differences. It is unclear for the causes of the burnouts that eventually increase the turnover intention. However, it is likely that the burnout is caused by the harsh climatic conditions that the non-Saudi nationals experience, thus leading them to opt for turnover. Another reason attributed to the turnover is the few populations of the pharmacists and pharmacy technicians in Saudi Arabia. Thus, leading to those in the field being given lots of job duties without considering their need for rest.

Limitations

There are low studies that have been done in Saudi Arabia about the relationship of burnout and pharmacist, major studies have focused on health care practitioners in general and the nursing profession, thus neglecting the field of pharmacy. Also, the available studies do not provide information to the fullest such as showing information about emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment. There are few inter-region comparisons showing the general prevalence of burnout syndrome in different regions of Saudi Arabia.

Conclusion

There is a critical need for more research on the relationship between turnover intention and burnout in Saudi Arabia. This is necessary both for improving and maintaining the population of pharmacists and pharmaceutical technicians.

References

Al-Muallem, N., & Al-Surimi, K. M. (2019). Job satisfaction, work commitment, and intention to leave among pharmacists: a cross-sectional study. BMJ Open, 9(9), e024448. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-024448. link

Almutairi, A. F., Salam, M., Adlan, A. A., & Alturki, A. S. (2019). Prevalence of severe moral distress among healthcare providers in Saudi Arabia. Psychology research and behavior management, 12, 107–115. https://doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S191037

Al-Omar, H. A., Arafah, A. M., Barakat, J. M., Almutairi, R. D., Khurshid, F., & Alsultan, M. S. (2019). The impact of perceived organizational support.