Burnout and Disengagement at Work Among Health Professionals—Interrelations and Associations With Stress Indicators and Job Resources

Abstract

Objective: The aim of the study is to explore common risk and protective factors of burnout and disengagement at work among healthcare workers. Methods: Cross-sectional survey data of 1232 health professionals and employees of five public hospitals and rehabilitation clinics collected in 2015/16 in German-speaking Switzerland were used and analyzed. Different stress measures and job resources were studied as predictors of burnout and work engagement. Results: Burnout was found to be largely explained by work stress (β = 0.22) and particularly by general stress (β = 0.54) whereas work engagement was only marginally determined by these stress indicators. Job autonomy or supervisor support on the other hand had no protective effect on burnout at all but a fairly strong predictive effect on work engagement (β = 0.27/0.23). Conclusion: Burnout turned out to be mainly stress-induced whereas work engagement emerged largely as a result of job autonomy and supervisor support.