Self-administered questionnaires were completed by 75 staff providing direct care to institutionalized elderly patients with Alzheimer's Disease or a related dementia. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to investigate the relative influence of four sets of predictor variables on burnout: (a) staff characteristics, (b) workload and caregiving involvement, (c) work environment characteristics, and (d) social support. The guiding hypothesis was that work environment characteristics (role conflict and role ambiguity) collectively would be the best predictors of burnout. Staff burnout was measured using the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), and specifically the Emotional Exhaustion subscale of the MBI. Work environment characteristics accounted for more than 60% of the explained variance in burnout; the majority of this variance being explained by the factor of role conflict. Implications for re-structuring the work environment in long-term care settings are described.
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Barber et al. (1996) studied this question.