BackgroundThe Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) is the mainstream measure for burnout. However, its psychometric properties have been questioned, and alternative measurement models of the inventory have been suggested.AimsDifferent models for the number of items and factors of the MBI-HSS, the version of the Inventory for the Human Service sector, were tested in order to identify the most appropriate model for measuring burnout in Italy.MethodsThe study dataset consisted of a sample of 925 nurses. Ten alternative models of burnout were compared using confirmatory factor analysis. The psychometric properties of items and reliability of the MBI-HSS subscales were evaluated.ResultsItem malfunctioning may confound the MBI-HSS factor structure. The analysis confirmed the factorial structure of the MBI-HSS with a three-dimensional, 20-item assessment.ConclusionsThe factorial structure underlying the MBI-HSS follows Maslach’s definition when items are reduced from the original 22 to a 20-item set. Alternative models, either with fewer items or with an increased number of latent dimensions in the burnout structure, do not yield better results to justify redefining the item set or theoretically revising the syndrome construct.

Objective: Demographic changes involving western countries and later retirements due to the recent pension reforms induce a gradual aging of the workforce. This imply an increasing number of workers with health problems and a decreasing of ability to work. In this direction, the present study aims at examining the role of job and personal resources between age and work ability within nurses.Method: The study was cross-sectional and not randomized; data were collected by a self-report questionnaire during a multi-center survey conducted in two Italian hospitals in 2016. In this way, 333 nurses were reached.Results: Multiple linear regression showed that age is significantly and negatively associated to work ability, and that job resources (e.g., decision authority and meaning of work) and personal resources (e.g., hope and resilience) moderate the relationship between age and work ability.Discussion: These results highlight that investing in work and personal resources to support WA is even more relevant for those professions where high physical effort is required.

Background: A growing number of studies reveal that there are significant associations between a patient's perception of quality of care and a health professional's perceived quality of work life. Previous studies focused on the patients or on the workers. Alternatively, they center the discussion on either the negative or the positive effects, both on patients and care workers. This research work focuses on the positive relationship with patients—a possible resource for care workers.Method: Study 1: A CFA was conducted to test the factorial structure and the tenure of the Italian version for patients of the Customer-initiated Support scale. Study 2: Using a multi-group path analysis, the effects of work characteristics and of the relationship with patients on burnout were tested in two different contexts: emergency and oncology ward.Results: Study 1: The one-factor instrument shows good reliability, convergent, and divergent validity. Study 2: for oncology nurses cognitive demands, job autonomy, and support from patients have direct effects on emotional exhaustion and job autonomy; interactions between cognitive demands and patients' support have an effect on depersonalization. For emergency nurses cognitive demands and interactions between job autonomy and support from patients have effects on emotional exhaustion; job autonomy, patients support and gratitude have direct effects on personal accomplishment.Conclusions: Results confirm expectations about the role of patients' support and gratitude in reducing nurses' burnout, with differences in the two contexts: emergency nurses show higher burnout and lower perception of positive relationship with patients, but present more intense protective effects of the interaction between job autonomy and support/gratitude. Suggestions can be offered to managers in developing interventions to promote “healthy organization” culture that consider jointly employees and patients' needs.

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Work ability is a central concept in studies concerning the health of the aging workforce. The aim of the present study was to understand the role of work ability in the Job Demands-Resources model and, specifically, to establish whether and through which mechanisms it operates as a personal resource in the health-impairment process. Two-hundred and 2 female kindergarten teachers aged 50 and over completed self-reporting questionnaires. Data analyses were performed using structural equation model (SEM) and moderated regression analyses. The findings indicated that work ability plays a mediating role in the relationship between job characteristics (that are job demands and job resources) and exhaustion. Conversely, the results showed that work ability did not moderate the relationship between job demands and exhaustion. Overall, the results suggest that work ability can be appropriately considered a crucial resource, which can affect workers' health and well-being by supporting workers to deal with job demands and optimally use job resources. From a practical point of view, the findings suggest that organizations should implement monitoring actions and intervention programs aimed at fine-tuning job demands and job resources over the entire work life. This can promote the conservation of work ability and, thus, sustain workers' well-being into the latter stages of their careers.