Health hazards, job satisfaction and quality of life of health professionals working at government hospitals in Mandalay City, Myanmar.

Health professionals play a vital role in improving and restoring health status of the community. Quality of care, patient safety and patient satisfaction depend on their performance. Job dissatisfaction, poor quality of life and they themselves being unhealthy have signifi cant impact on performance and commitment of health professionals. Therefore a cross-sectional study was conducted to determine health hazard, job satisfaction and quality of life of Myanmar health professionals during the period of February and March, 2014. Altogether 142 subjects (97 medical doctors and 45 nurses) working in government hospitals situated in Mandalay City were recruited after getting informed consent. This study found out that overall, very few health professionals were regular smokers (2.1%) and betel chewers (1.4%). There were no regular alcohol drinkers. However, among the male medical doctors12% and 8% were found to be regular smokers and betel nut chewers, respectively. Reading (58.5%) and watching movie (43.9%) are the most common recreational activities. About half (45.8%) of the subjects reported to have encountered injury either during an operation or while giving injections to patients. Such injury was reported in spite of 92.8% of all the respondents reporting to have followed universal safety precaution measures. In addition 67.6% reported that they did not have enough income and 21.1% reported not to be having adequate sleeping hours. In general 53% did not have job satisfaction. The reasons given for this were low salary (66.7%) and overwork (61.3%). However, most of the subjects (about 80%) fell into average levels of compassion satisfaction, burnout and secondary traumatic stress. Only 1% of the respondents were at low level of compassion satisfaction and high level of secondary traumatic stress. No respondent was at high level of burnout scale. Insuffi cient income was found to be major determinant of job satisfaction and quality of life of Myanmar health professionals (p < 0.01). There was significant relationship between job satisfaction and quality of life, especially burnout (p = 0.008). There is urgent need to address the problem of lacking job satisfaction through giving enough income and increasing manpower to reduce workload in hospitals. Strict adherence to universal precaution by health professionals should be reviewed and reinforced.