Healthcare professionals’ wellbeing and burnout: what can help and what not?

Background: Healthcare professionals dealing with complex and multimorbid patients are exposed to different risks for their wellbeing. So, it is important to look for risk and protective factors. Aim: To detect any within- and between-group differences regarding wellbeing and burnout in two different medical specializations. Method: Healthcare providers working in palliative care/oncology unit and in rehabilitation medicine was involved in an observational cross-sectional study. We administered an anonymous questionnaire constituted by MASI-R (distress/eustress), MDS-R (moral distress), HECS (ethical climate), MBI-GS (burnout), PANAS (positive and negative emotions), CD-RISC-10 (resilience). Results: 315 healthcare professionals participated (rehabilitation medicine: 70.5%; palliative care/oncology: 29.5%). The palliative care providers reported higher moral distress (t(265)=-4.17, p<.001), but also more positive ethical climate (t(307)=-2.97, p<.01) than colleagues working in rehabilitation medicine. After controlling for the influence of medical specialization and gender through hierarchical regression, negative affect (beta=.66, p<.001) and moral distress (beta=.09, p<.05) predicted emotional exhaustion. Moreover, positive affect (beta=.36, p<.001) and social support (beta=.34, p<.001) increased wellbeing and negative affect reduced it (beta=-.25, p<.001). Conclusions: Mapping resources and risk factors may allow customizing interventions for the healthcare professionals.