Predicting Nurses' Burnout Based on Personality Traits, Work-Family Conflict and Social Support in the Covid-19 Epidemic

Background & Aims: One of the most important factors that reduces the productivity and ability of nurses to effectively perform job duties in work environments is job burnout. Job burnout brings many problems such as chronic fatigue, insomnia, facing family problems, negative attitudes and behaviors towards oneself, work and clients, absenteeism and lack of job satisfaction. Studies have shown that there is a significant relationship between the spread of covid-19 and health-psychological problems such as stress and burnout among nurses. Due to the contagious nature of this disease and the fear of contracting it in the people around us during this period, as well as due to the high workload and contact with sick patients, nurses are at risk of occupational stress and work-family conflict and the lack of balance between work and Life is about to happen. Individual factors affecting mental health include demographic characteristics, personality characteristics, balance between work and life, support from family and friends. Considering the prevalence of covid-19 and the high pressure and workload and heavy work shifts of nurses these days, and considering the sensitivity of the nursing job and the harmful effects of burnout on the effectiveness and quality of nurses' care, the present study aims to investigate personality characteristics variables. Work-family conflict and social support have been conducted as predictors of nurses' burnout in the Covid-19 crisis. Materials & Methods: The current descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study was conducted from August 15 to September 15, 1400, during the fifth peak of Covid-19 in Iran, among nurses in Ilam city. 130 nurses were selected by simple random sampling from among the nurses working in internal departments (men and women), pediatrics, surgery, general, covid-19 and emergency departments of medical centers involved in corona disease. The criterion for entering the study was their consent to participate in the present study and having at least 6 months of work experience in the nursing profession, as well as being employed in a treatment center involved in the covid-19 disease. The data collection tool includes demographic characteristics (including the variables of age, work experience, gender, marital status, type of degree and education, amount of work per week, department of the workplace, employment status and type of shift work, contact with covid-19 patients, increase Working hours due to the outbreak of Covid-19, Maslach burnout questionnaire, NEO personality traits, Carlson's work-family conflict and Zimet's perceived support were used for data collection. The code of ethics, the questionnaire was distributed electronically (from Google) and through WhatsApp and Rubik's social networks, with informed consent at the beginning of the questionnaire, among the nurses. Data were collected using descriptive statistics, as well as Pearson correlation tests and models. Multiple linear regression was analyzed with the help of SPSS 26. Results: In this study, 130 nurses working in the selected covid-19 wards in 4 hospitals in Ilam participated in this study. (64.6%) were female nurses. 56.9% of the respondents were married, 83.1% of the respondents had a bachelor's degree in terms of education, and 43.8% of the respondents were of the official type. 95.4% of respondents were in contact with covid-19 patients, 96.2% of nurses stated that their working hours had increased due to covid-19. The average age of the nurses was 34.96±6.91 years and the age range was from 24 to 55 years. The average work experience of nurses was 9.62±5.59 years and the average amount of work per week in terms of hours was 63.0±14.5 hours. The results of the Pearson correlation test between predictor variables and job burnout components showed emotional exhaustion with the personality traits of neuroticism (r=0.31, p<0.05) and extroversion (r=0.40, p<0.05) and had a relationship with family-work conflict (r=0.32, p>0.05). The depersonalization component was related to all variables (r=0.26, p>0.05), and the individual success component was related to all variables, except for the personality characteristic of openness (r=0.27, p>0.05). The results of the multiple regression model showed that out of the two predictive variables of extroversion and work-family conflict, they were able to predict the component of emotional exhaustion (p<0.05). The direction of the effect of extroversion on emotional exhaustion was positive and the direction of the effect of family-work conflict was negative. The greatest impact on emotional exhaustion was related to extroversion (β=0.351). Perceived social support did not show a significant effect on job burnout (p<0.05).The results showed that four predictive variables of neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and family work conflict could significantly predict the depersonalization component (p<0.05). The effect of neuroticism and family work conflict on depersonalization was positive, and agreeableness (β = -0.405) had the greatest impact on depersonalization. Also, three predictive variables of extroversion, conscientiousness and work-family conflict were able to predict the component of individual success (p<0.05). The effect of extroversion and conscientiousness on individual success was positive and the effect of work-family conflict was negative. Family-work conflict had the strongest effect on individual success (β = -0.260). Conclusion: In the present study, the findings showed that the two personality traits of extroversion and agreeableness were predictors of job burnout. According to the results obtained in the present study, the relationship between job burnout and perceived social support was negative and positive with work-family conflict. In this case, it can be seen that in this study, the personality traits of extroversion and agreeableness, as well as work-family conflict, predict a degree of job burnout. The less support from friends and colleagues, especially in such difficult conditions of disease outbreaks, the more job burnout appears in nurses. Personality dimensions, work-family conflict, and social support, as well as the occurrence of burnout in nurses, act in a related manner, so it is necessary for the authorities to use supportive and educational measures to reduce burnout in the health crisis. By strengthening personal strengths and reducing personal weaknesses and with sufficient support from the authorities, it is possible to prevent job stress and finally the formation of job burnout in nurses. With their efforts, the authorities can reduce the environmental factors that cause nurses' occupational stress, more social and psychological support for nurses will be provided, and strategies to deal with stress and occupational pressures will be taught to nurses so that they can be comfortable in crises such as emerging diseases. do their duty and minimize the burnout of nurses in hard work conditions and improve the quality of patient care in such cases.