Data regarding burnout were collected using an English version of the original 22-item, 3-sub-scale Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) questionnaire.
The subscales are (a) emotional exhaustion (EE), measured using 9 items to address the feeling of being emotionally drained, (b) depersonalization (DP), measured using 5 items to address the tendency to view the others as objects rather than as feeling persons, and (c) personal achievement (PA), measured using 8 items to address the degree to which a person perceives doing well on worthwhile tasks.[10 ] A 7-point scoring (0 = never; 6 = every day) was used by the participants to answer each item in the questionnaire. The calculated scores for each domain were categorized as mild, moderate, and sever impairment using the following cut-off values: For EE, mild: 0–16, moderate: 17–26, and severe: ≥27. For DP, mild: 0–6, moderate: 7–12, and severe: ≥13. For low PA, mild: ≥39, moderate: 32–38, and severe: 0–31.
MBI has high reliability and validity, with reliability coefficient of 0.89, 0.74, 0,77 for EE, DP, and PA, respectively.[10 ] Moreover, the reported Cronbach's alpha of the questionnaire is 0.9, 0.76, 0.76 for EE, DP, and PA, respectively.[9 (link)]
A sociodemographic questionnaire was also used to determine potential risk factors associated with burnout. Demographic data collected included age, gender, current designation, and nationality. The social data collected included marital status, number of children, impact of critical care specialty on family life, and satisfaction with salary.
The questionnaire was distributed by the investigators in paper form and in English language only, with the estimated time for questionnaire completion being 6–8 min. The aim of the study and the questionnaire were explained to the participants. In addition, they were informed that participation is voluntary, and were assured of anonymity and data confidentiality. Verbal informed consent was obtained from all participants, and no incentives were offered for participation in the study. The study participants answered the questionnaire independently, and the questionnaire was distributed during the break time of the working shift and re-collected by the investigators at the same shift. Only responses with at least 80% of the questionnaire being completed were considered for the final analysis.