Asian Pac. J. Health Sci., 2015; 2[4S]:60-66 e-ISSN: 2349-0659, p-ISSN: 2350-0964 ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Amin ASIAN PACIFIC JOURNAL OF HEALTH SCIENCES, 2015; 2[4S]:60-66 www.apjhs.com 60 Burnout among female academic staff at universities in Khartoum State Maha Abdul-Moniem Mohammed El-Amin 1 * 1 Assistant Professor, College of Education, King Faisal University, Al-Ahsa-Saudi Arabia ABSTRACT Introduction: Burnout is referred to as the disease of modern life. The current study was undertaken to observe Burnout among female academic staff at universities in Khartoum State. Materials and methods: The sampling frame for the study comprised of 1523 full-time female academic staff working at both public and private universities at Khartoum State. Personal Information Form and Maslach Burnout inventory (MBI) were used for data collection. Results: Burnout is not high among married female academic staff, but it is high among the divorced and widow female academic staff affecting the depersonalization dimension. Absenteeism among female academic staff correlated positively with the burnout dimensions. Physiological and psychological health symptoms among female academic staff correlated positively with all the burnout dimensions. Conclusion: We recommend further detailed studies in this area for better understanding of burn out in the staff and to offer better stress management techniques. Keywords: Burnout, female academic staff at universities. Introduction Burnout is referred to as the disease of modern life [1]. Burnout is an individual experience that is specific to the work context. And the outcomes that have been studied have been related to job performance and health outcomes. Burnout is a situation in which employees are emotionally exhausted, become detached from their clients and their work, and feel unable to accomplish their goals [2]. It is a response to self-induced psychological stress caused by illogical and irrational beliefs about work and job performance [3]. When job-related stress is prolonged, poor job performance moves into critical phase, known as burnout [4].Burnout is not an imaginary condition, it’s a mental and physiological condition caused by a stress overload, overtaxed emotionally, or physically exhausted. Burnout research had its roots in care- giving and service occupation, in which the core of the job was the relationship between provider and recipient; and that burnout was not studied as an individual response but as an individual’s relational transactions in the workplace. _______________________________ *Correspondence Maha Abdul-Moniem Mohammed El-Amin 1 Assistant Professor,College of Education, King Faisal University, Al-Ahsa-Saudi Arabia The professionals who are most vulnerable to burnout include; social workers, nurses, physicians, police officers, air traffic controllers, teachers, lawyers, managers and shop owners. Burnout affect people who constantly face stressor with little relief or those who must deal with other people as part of their jobs; those people who have a high frequency and a high intensity of interpersonal contact, which may lead to emotional exhaustion-a key component of job burnout. Thus, unrelieved stressful working conditions coupled with an individual’s unrealistic expectations or ambitions may lead to physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion. In burnout, the individual can no longer cope with job demands, and the willingness to try even drops dramatically [5]. It was reported that the initial work on burnout developed out of the occupational sector of human services and education and of particular concern in these occupations were the emotional challenges of working intensively with people with either a care giving or teaching role, in which the core of the job was the relationship between provider and recipient. Once the three dimensions of burnout have been identified, several theories about the development of burnout have emerged such as the phase model.