EXPLORING SOCIODEMOGRAPHS AND COPING AS REDICTORS OF BURNOUT AMONG MILITARY MEDICAL PERSONNEL DEPLOYED
Aboh J. Ogbole1 Sandra O. Ezeh2 & Mgbenkemdi Ejike. H3
1Psychological Counselling Cell, HQ Theatre Command Operation LAFIYA DOLE, Maiduguri.
2Department of Behaviourial Medicine, 44 Nigerian Army Reference Hospital, Kaduna.
3Department of Psychology Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Agbani Enugu.
ABSTRACT
Military medical personnel deployed, experience a high level of stress in meeting the health needs of the entire personnel in military operations. This can lead to burnout which in turn threatens patient care. This study, therefore, aims to investigate factors that predicted burnout in these healthcare professionals deployed in Northeast Nigeria fighting the insurgency. A total of 120 participants were purposively selected to take part in the study. Two sets of instruments; the personal functioning inventory (PFI) to measure coping styles and the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) as a measure for burnout while sociodemographic information obtained included rank, age, marital status, religion years in service professional discipline and years of professional experience. Descriptive statistics were used to present sociodemographic factors of participants while chi-square and one-way ANOVA was used to obtain the individual and joint influences of sociodemographic variables and coping on burnout respectively. Results obtained revealed that sociodemographic variables and coping styles would significantly independently and jointly predict burnout among Nigerian military medical personnel. It was suggested that Military commanders should adopt supportive approaches and different strategies to reduce the incidence of burnout among their medical personnel to achieve effective patient care for operational effectiveness. These findings were discussed based on the literature reviewed while recommendations were made accordingly.
Keywords: Coping styles, Sociodemography, Burnout, Military, Medical personnel
