Introduction: Job burnout is a substantial problem among health care workers. Aim of Work: To determine the prevalence of burnout, its predictors among nurses working in primary health care facilities during COVID-19 in Egypt.
Materials and Methods: A multicenter descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on all nurses (250) working in primary health care facilities (11 units and 5 centers) in Port said city between March and June 2020. An interviewer-administered questionnaire including socio-demographic, occupational and contextual questions contributing to burnout. While the second one was the standardized Arabic version of Maslach Burnout Inventory(MBI). Results: The prevalence of high burnout among nurses was 86%. The most prevalent subscale was low level personal accomplishment followed by high depersonalization (DP) then emotional exhaustion (EE). Time insufficiency for family, bad work relationships, being a technical nurses and inflexibility in work scheduling were predictors of both EE and DP. Moreover, EE was significantly associated with married female nurses who experienced work-related stress. While high DP was significantly associated with older male married registered nurse who had longer working hours weekly and lack of PPE. Burnout predictors were lack of PPE (AOR=27.57; 95% CI: 3.2-30.45), presence of work-related stress (AOR=10.6; 95% CI: 2.17-25.22) and inflexibility in work scheduling (OR=3.71; 95% CI:1.07 -12.84). Conclusion and Recommendations: Most of the primary health care nurses experienced high levels of burnout during COVID-19 pandemic. Work related stress, inflexibility of scheduling, lack of PPE displayed significant prediction of burnout. Health-care environments can be enhanced through providing protective equipment, adjusting workhours, ensuring hours of effective rest, increasing manpower to reduce workload.