The relationship between burnout and job satisfaction among mental health workers in the psychiatric hospital, Bahrain

Burnout syndrome affects many mental health workers, but does burnout relate to their satisfaction with their jobs? Our knowledge on the topics of burnout and job satisfaction emerges mainly from developed countries; very little research exists in the Arab world exploring these topics. Data for this research were sought from all mental health workers in the Psychiatric Hospital, Bahrain (N=261) using a census, cross-sectional design. Research instrumentation included Maslach Burnout Inventory, Job Satisfaction Survey and demographic sheet. Altogether 153 participants responded to the survey. Descriptive statistics showed that participants reported a prevalence of moderate levels of job satisfaction and moderate level of burnout. We correlated dimensions of burnout syndrome with job satisfaction scores and again with the nine individual job satisfaction dimensions. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient revealed that there was no significant correlation between the three burnout components and job satisfaction scores. Results of structural equation modeling analyses provided further support to earlier finding that burnout and job satisfaction are two psychological conditions, and that job satisfaction is not predicted using burnout components.