The risk of burnout in the field of long-term care. Strains and health resources of nurses and caregivers

Background. Recent health insurance data indicate that the phenomenon "burnout" is becoming of increasing importance in the working environment. With regard to burnout, staff of long-term care facilities is a particularly vulnerable group. Objectives. It was supposed that strains (e.g., workload) and health resources (e.g., leadership capital) are associated with the risk of burnout. In addition, the objective was to investigate if these factors influence each other and, thus, have an indirect impact on the risk of burnout. Material and methods. A standardized survey in eight long-term care facilities was carried out. Staff members were questioned concerning their individual burnout risk and work-related factors which may influence this risk. Correlation analyses and structural equation modelling were used to test hypotheses. Results. Of staff members, 37 % have an increased risk of burnout. Workload (r = 0.53) and work-family conflict (r = 0.58) are strongly associated with the risk of burnout, while leadership capital (r = -0.34) and social network capital (r = -0.27) show lower correlation coefficients. However, leadership capital is strongly associated with workload (r = -0.51) and our model suggests that it might have an indirect impact on the risk of burnout (total effect = -0.56). Conclusions. The findings indicate that work place health promotion should not only target health-related behavior. Working conditions and management factors seem to have a noticeable influence on the staff's risk of burnout and should therefore be considered when developing workplace health promotion strategies.