Emotional exhaustion in academic medical center psychiatry staff: The association with workload and values

Burnout has been defined as the occurrence of three simultaneous experiences, heightened emotional exhaustion, increased depersonalization, and lowered personal accomplishment. The purpose of the study was to examine how emotional exhaustion was related to specific work-related variables amongst psychiatry staff working within an academic medical center. It was hypothesized that workload would have the strongest association with emotional exhaustion scores compared to other work-related factors. Staff (n = 114) responded to a departmental wellness survey. Bivariate correlations and mean comparisons were conducted to explore significant associations between work-related variables as measured by the Areas of Worklife Survey (AWS) and the emotional exhaustion subscale of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). Multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to determine which work-related variables were most strongly associated with emotional exhaustion. Age was included as an important covariate in regression analyses given the demonstrated strong inverse relationship with emotional exhaustion from previous literature. The final adjusted multiple regression model revealed that workload and value alignment, along with age, were associated with emotional exhaustion scores. Recommendations on how to support and educate younger psychiatry staff, reduce the burden of workload, and the importance of having institutional values match staff values are discussed.