Burnout among nurses working in critical care settings: a case of a selected tertiary hospital in Rwanda

Background: Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and Emergency Department are more stressful areas therefore nurses in those areas are prone to high level of burnout than others. In Rwanda, studies on burnout among nurses are limited and there is no research targeting specifically nurses working in ICU and Emergency Department. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the level of burnout among nurses working in ICU and Emergency Department in a selected referral hospital of Kigali.Methods: A quantitative approach was adopted. The descriptive cross-sectional design was used. Sixty nurses were involved in the study and they were selected using a total population sampling strategy. A self-administered questionnaire and Maslach Burnout Inventory Human Service Survey were used to collect data. Data were analysed using SPSS version 21.0.Results: The study found high level of burnout among 61.7% of the participants under study. High workload and intention to leave were associated with burnout (P<0.05). Burnout was measured by high Emotional Exhaustion (EE) 29 (48.3%), high Depersonalization (DP) 15 (25%) and low Personal Accomplishment (PA) 30 (50%).Conclusions: The high level of burnout identified among ICU and emergency department nurses is mainly associated with high workload and intention to leave the work within the next 12 months