Correlation of Burnout Syndrome with Emotional Intelligence among Clinicians at Workplace

Aliena Badshah; Adnan Yousaf; Usman Mehboob; Muhammad Babar Khan

doi:10.12669/pjms.41.1.9725

Correlation of Burnout Syndrome with Emotional Intelligence among Clinicians at Workplace

Pak J Med Sci. 2025 Jan;41(1):83-89. doi: 10.12669/pjms.41.1.9725.

Authors

Aliena Badshah¹, Adnan Yousaf², Usman Mehboob³, Muhammad Babar Khan⁴

Affiliations

¹ Aliena Badshah, Department of Medicine, Khyber Teaching Hospital, Peshawar, Pakistan.
² Adnan Yousaf, Dr. Maqbali Khan Hospital, Peshawar, Pakistan.
³ Usman Mehboob, Khyber Medical University, Peshawar, Pakistan.
⁴ Muhammad Babar Khan, Khyber Medical College, Peshawar, Pakistan.

Abstract

Objective: To determine the correlation of burnout syndrome with emotional intelligence at workplace.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in six public sector hospitals of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa between June and November, 2022. Male and female clinicians from Medicine, Surgery, Obstetrics / Gynaecology, Paediatrics Medicine, Paediatric Surgery, Gastroenterology, Anesthesiology, Psychiatry, Radiology, Dermatology, Ophthalmology, Otorhinolaryngology, Nephrology, Urology, Neurology, Neurosurgery, Orthopaedics, Endocrinology, Rheumatology and Cardiology were included in the study. The study was initiated after ethical approval from ethical review board of Khyber Medical University. Informed consent was taken from all study participants. They were given a proforma to fill. The proforma was divided into three categories; clinician demographics, Maslach Burnout inventory, and Schutte Emotional Intelligence Scale. All questions on the Maslach Burnout inventory and Schutte Emotional Intelligence Scale pertained to their duty hours from 8am to 4pm. The Maslach Burnout Inventory was stratified into three sub-scales of emotional exhaustion, personal accomplishment and depersonalization. Results were compiled in SPSS 25. Correlation between the three strata of MBI was made with SEIS and stratified on the basis of gender, specialty, designation, institute, and clinical experience.

Results: Emotional exhaustion has a negative correlation at Spearman correlation = -0.272 with SEIS; Personal accomplishment has a positive correlation at Spearman correlation = 0.402; Depersonalization has a negative correlation with SEIS at Spearman correlation = -0.349.

Conclusions: There is a weak correlation between burnout syndrome and emotional intelligence among clinicians. Further studies need to be conducted on a larger scale to explore the reasons behind this weak correlation.

Keywords: Burnout syndrome; Depersonalization; Emotional Exhaustion; Emotional intelligence; Maslach Burnout Inventory; Personal Accomplishment; Schutte Emotional Intelligence Scale.