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.