Jundishapur J Chronic Dis Care. 2023 January; 12(1):e131501. Published online 2023 March 6. https://doi.org/10.5812/jjcdc-131501. Research Article On the Relationship Between Job Satisfaction and Burnout Among Nurses Working in Hospitals of Erbil, a City in Kurdistan Region of Iraq Fatemeh Hajibabaee 1 , Avang Hussein Mahmood 2 , Nahid Dehghan Nayeri 3, * , Waliu Jawula Salisu 4 and Hadis Ashrafizadeh 5 1 School of Nursing and Midwifery, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 2 School of Nursing and Midwifery, International Campus, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 3 Nursing and Midwifery Care Research Center, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 4 Department of Hepatology, Cambridge Liver Unit, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, England 5 Student Research Committee, Faculty of Nursing, Dezful University of Medical Sciences, Dezful, Iran * Corresponding author: Nursing and Midwifery Care Research Center, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, East Nosrat Street, Tohid Square, Tehran, Iran. Email: nahid.nayeri@gmail.com Received 2022 September 06; Revised 2022 December 18; Accepted 2022 December 22. Abstract Background: Witnessing chronic patients suffering from incurable diseases and the agony of watching their death make nursing one of the most stressful jobs. Job satisfaction is a key factor in providing quality nursing care services. Stress and burnout are other factors that can affect nurses’ job satisfaction and negatively influence the quality of care. Objectives: The present study aimed to determine the relationship between job satisfaction and burnout among nurses working in hospitals of Erbil, a city in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, during 2015 - 2016. Methods: This research was a descriptive, correlational, and cross-sectional study, which encompassed 455 nursing staff, including nurses, auxiliary nurses, and nurse aids working in the public hospital in Erbil city, Kurdistan. The participants were selected using the random stratified sampling method. Demographic information forms, Herzberg’s job satisfaction scale, and Maslach’s burnout questionnaires were used to collect data. The collected data were analyzed with SPSS software version 20 using descriptive statistics, chi-square statistical tests, Fisher’s exact test, and Pearson’s correlation coefficients. Results: According to the findings, 7.8% of nurses had low job satisfaction, 45.2% had moderate job satisfaction, 42.7% had high job satisfaction, and 4.4% had remarkably high job satisfaction. The burnout results showed that the mean values were 36.16 ± 12.51 for the lack of personal success, 13.38 ± 9.86 for emotional exhaustion, and 8.67 ± 8.39 for depersonalization. Pearson’s correlation coefficient test revealed a statistically significant but inverse relationship between the job satisfaction of nurses and the three burnout dimensions (P ≤ 0.0001). Conclusions: The authors propose a periodic job satisfaction evaluation and the detection of factors negatively affecting job satisfaction. To further reduce nurses’ burnout, managers should encourage and promote effective communication in work environments and ensure that nurses participate in decision-making. Job contradictions and ambiguities should also be reduced and avoided, if possible. Keywords: Burnout, Job Satisfaction, Nurses, Stress 1. Background Healthcare professionals, including nurses, are in close contact with patients and their families and are always responsible for their health. Witnessing patients suffering from incurable diseases and the agony of watching their death make nursing one of the most stressful jobs (1). Job satisfaction is a key factor in providing quality nursing care services (2) and an important component in many studies. Job satisfaction refers to individuals’ positive emotions and attitudes toward their jobs (3). Stress and burnout are among other factors that can affect the quality of care by having a negative impact on nurses’ job satisfaction (2). The ratio of nurses per 1000 people in Iraq in 2018 was two, which is an important factor in burnout and job stress levels. Although many studies have addressed this issue, few studies, if any, have investigated the hospitals of the Kurdistan region of Iraq, which have a different context with different patient experiences caused by the Copyright © 2023, Jundishapur Journal of Chronic Disease Care. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits copy and redistribute the material just in noncommercial usages, provided the original work is properly cited.