EFFECT OF CUSTOMER AGGRESSION AND JOB STRESS ON EMPLOYEES’ BURNOUT: A STUDY OF HEALTH PROFESSIONALS IN FEDERAL MEDICAL CENTRE GUSAU, ZAMFARA STATE-NIGERIA

Among susceptible occupations, health care professionals have been identified as the group most likely to experience burnout. Past studies have identified stress and customer aggression as possible determinants of employees ’ burnout and results produced mixed findings. Hence, the current study examines the effect of customer aggression and job stress on employees ’ burnout among health professionals in the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Gusau, Zamfara State, Nigeria. A survey research design was used and data were collected by using instruments adapted from past studies. The study population is 466 staff of FMC, Gusau. A sample size of 211 staff were taken using Krajcie and Morgan sample size table. In order to increase representative, the sample size was increased by 50 percent making 317 elements. Thus, 317 questionnaires were distributed by hand to the respondents in November, 2017 and only 278 were returned valid and usable. The study utilized partial least square structural equation modelling PLS-SEM through Smartpls 3 software. Two hypotheses were formulated for testing. The result confirmed that both customer aggression and job stress have significant positive effect on employees' burnout among health professionals in FMC, Gusau. The research concludes that stress at work and customer verbal aggression affect burnout among health professionals in FMC. The study therefore recommended that management of FMC provides effective actions and intervention strategies for promoting customer relationship management, physical mental health of workers and decreasing job stress among health professionals.