INTRODUCTIONBurnout is characterized by loss of emotional strength, not valuing human beings living together with or offering service and decreased in job performance and success due to lack of interest related to occupational stressors.1Burnout was recognized as work related danger among human oriented professionals including health care professionals since they are required to work many hours to help humans and face a challenge of high demand and low resources.1 Burnout is due to prolonged work related stress that is not managed. In a work environment this leads to high worker turnover, absenteeism, compromise of interpersonal relationships, reduced productivity and low personal achievement. 2High level of burnout was identified among nurses working in ICU (Intensive Care Unit) and Emergency Department. A systematic review on burnout among ICU health professionals found the prevalence to range from 6% to 47%. 3 Moreover, this systematic review found the following risk factors: age, gender, work experience, ABSTRACT 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.

BackgroundThe level of burnout among nurses working in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and Emergency Department (ED) is high, which adversely affects health and work-related outcomes for both nurses and patients. Little is known about burnout among ICU and ED nurses in Rwanda. ObjectiveTo explore the perceived effects of burnout among nurses and its management at a referral hospital in Rwanda. Methods A qualitative study design was carried out using focus groups. A purposive sample of six ICU and six ED nurses were recruited from the referral hospital in the capital city of Kigali. The discussions were audio-recorded in Kinyarwanda, transcribed verbatim into English and analysed inductively using thematic analysis. ResultsBurnout among the 12 nurses was high and the five main themes namely, high burnout, the Variability of care, Incomplete care, Erratic care and Improving situation to prevent burnout. ConclusionThe results of this study indicated that burnout is high between the ICU and ED study population and nurses need to be taken care of too. A good working environment addressing adequate staffing, specialty training, operational materials, and social activities are needed to improve unit functioning, and patient satisfaction and safety.Rwanda J Med Health Sci 2019;2(2):147-153.