Short url: http://ebmgt.github.io/burnout-paradox
This project was undertaken due to the finding in our second NHS study which quantified the contributions of burnout, engagement, and job recommendation to SHMI.
Until recently, burnout in the NHS was best measured by "During the last 12 months have you felt unwell as a result of work related stress?" This is justified by Schaufeli's finding a strong association stress and burnout (R: 0.66 to 0.74) between burnout and physical stress (1). About 35% to 40% of staff before COVID answered yes to this question (link to plot at NHS - https://www.nhsstaffsurveys.com/results/interactive-results/)
This analysis unexpectedly found that higher burnout was associated with lower Summary Hospital-level Mortality Indicator (SHMI)(2).
We hypothesize that this finding is due to short term stress at work may be associated with improved performance. The detection of this may be due to the unqiue data structure of the NHS Staff Surveys in which burnout is only measured over the last year. So, the workforce can improve short term performance under stress.
This study is important as it may help explain the gap between practice and evidence-based management (EBMgt) (3-7).
- Starting in 2021, the NHS has added the following questions each autumn:
These new questions are important as depersonalization subscale may have the most impact on quality of care (8).
The prevalences of these questions in 2021 are available at https://public.tableau.com/shared/QGTDCZKMN?:display_count=n&:origin=viz_share_link
Hospital Summary Hospital-level Mortality Indicator (SHMI) annual reports are available at https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/shmi#past-publications
Data (under development)
- Schaufeli WB, Bakker AB. Job demands, job resources, and their relationship with burnout and engagement: a multi-sample study. J Organ Behav 2004; 25: 293–315. doi:10.1002/job.248
- Boyle RE, Jonker L, Xirasagar S, Okut H, Badgett RG. Workforce wellbeing and hospital mortality. 2021 Annual Meeting of the Society of General Internal Medicine; 2021 April; Virtual. Society of General Internal Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-021-06830-5
- Pfeffer J, Sutton RI. Evidence-Based Management [Internet]. Harvard Business Review. 2006 [cited 2018 Jan 21]. Available from: https://hbr.org/2006/01/evidence-based-management
- Rynes, S. L., Bartunek, J. M., & Daft, R. L. (2001). Across the Great Divide: Knowledge Creation and Transfer Between Practitioners and Academics. Academy of Management Journal, 44(2), 340–355. doi:10.5465/3069460
- Rynes, S. L., Brown, K. G., Colbert, A. E., & Hansen, R. A. (2002). Seven Common Misconceptions about Human Resource Practices: Research Findings versus Practitioner Beliefs and Executive Commentary. The Academy of Management Executive (1993-2005), 16(3), 92–103. Available from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4165871
- Shapiro, D. L., & Kirkman, B. (2018). It’s Time to Make Business School Research More Relevant. Harvard Business Review. Available from: https://hbr.org/2018/07/its-time-to-make-business-school-research-more-relevant
- Shapiro, D. L., Kirkman, B. L., & Courtney, H. G. (2007). Perceived Causes and Solutions of the Translation Problem in Management Research. Academy of Management Journal, 50(2), 249–266. doi:10.5465/amj.2007.24634433
- Hodkinson A, Zhou A, Johnson J, Geraghty K, Riley R, Zhou A, Panagopoulou E, Chew-Graham CA, Peters D, Esmail A, Panagioti M. Associations of physician burnout with career engagement and quality of patient care: systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ. 2022 Sep 14;378:e070442. PMID: 36104064
This page maintained by rbadgett@kumc.edu on behalf of the research team.