Well-being in Healthcare: Psychological Well-Being, Burnout, and Work Engagement in Long-Term Care Employees
Date
2018-01-24
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ORCID
0000-0002-5537-9834
Type
Thesis
Degree Level
Masters
Abstract
The Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model posits that both job demands and job resources affect employee well-being, including the experience of burnout or work engagement. More recent studies adding to the model suggest that personal resources also contribute to these work-related outcomes. A personal resource that has not been examined in the JD-R model is psychological wellbeing (PWB), which encompasses thriving through the existential challenges of life to actualize human potential, and reflects qualities of self-acceptance, positive relations with others, personal growth, purpose in life, environmental mastery, and autonomy. The purpose of this study is to extend the JD-R model by examining the potential of PWB to inform the model. This work was done within the Canadian LTC context, which has not yet been examined using this model. A convenience sample of 327 LTC employees (110 nurses and 214 nursing assistants; three people chose not to disclose their status), completed a questionnaire assessing burnout, work engagement, job demands, job resources, and PWB. Simultaneous regression was used to examine the relationship between job demands and burnout, and job resources and work engagement, according to the JD-R model. Moderation analysis using PROCESS (Hayes, 2013) was used to ascertain whether PWB contributed to the model as a moderator of either burnout or engagement. Findings were as follows: (i) certain job demands (i.e., workload, emotion load, and role conflict) contribute significantly to burnout in LTC; (ii) certain job resources (i.e., autonomy, relationship with coworkers, relationship with supervisor, and participation) contribute significantly to work engagement in LTC; (iii) PWB moderates the relationship between job demands and burnout; (iv) PWB does not moderate the relationship between job resources and work engagement. These results extend the JD-R model to the Canadian LTC setting. They provide information about the kinds of demands and resources that relate to burnout and work engagement in LTC, and they confirm that PWB is an important personal resource for LTC nurses and nursing assistants, since it moderates (buffers) the relationship between job demands and burnout. These results have implications for promoting work engagement and reducing the likelihood of burnout in LTC.
Description
Keywords
Long-term care, burnout, work engagement, psychological well-being
Citation
Degree
Master of Arts (M.A.)
Department
Psychology
Program
Psychology