How to alleviate job burnout of primary medical staff? A path analysis with conservation of resources theory (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Job burnout is a prevalent and emerging challenge in the health system, which causes a mass turnover, especially for primary healthcare workers. Little attention has been paid to the research about multidimensional characteristics of job burnout (emotional exhaustion, disintegration of personality, and reduction in sense of achievement) among primary healthcare workers. From the perspective of conservation of resource theory, social support and psychological capital as basic resources are likely to be valued to diminish burnout. OBJECTIVE Our study examined the correlations between two types of resources (social support and psychological capital) and three subdivisions of job burnout. Meanwhile, this study also tested the impact of multidimensional job burnout on primary healthcare workers’ turnover intention. Hence, based on the results effective management strategies to improve the work stability of primary healthcare workers are discussed. METHODS Multi-stage cluster random sampling combined with a questionnaire method was used to collect data in the Anhui Province of China. The main information of the survey questionnaire contains demographic characteristics and questions about construction measurement. A total of 1132 valid questionnaires were obtained ultimately, and the structural equation modeling method was used for data analysis. RESULTS The findings of our study were that social support was negatively associated with emotional exhaustion (β=-0.088, P<0.05), the disintegration of personality (β=-0.235, P <0.001), and reduction in sense of achievement (β=-0.075, P<0.05). Psychological capital also had the same effect on emotional exhaustion (β=-0.079, P<0.05), the disintegration of personality (β=-0.156, P<0.001), and reduction in sense of achievement (β=-0.432, P<0.001). Moreover, all three sub-dimensions of job burnout positively affected turnover intention (H3a: β=0.246, P<0.001; H3b: β=0.076, P<0.05; H3c: β=0.119, P<0.01). CONCLUSIONS As the results shown in this study that both social support and psychological capital can reduce primary medical workers’ job burnout, which indicates personal physical and psychological concerns given by the organization, family, and friends are essential as well as the measures to improve primary healthcare workers’ psychological energy.