A workplace well-being game intervention for health sciences librarians to address burnout

Abstract

Objective: The authors measured burnout among health sciences librarians at our institution and determined whether a serious game intervention could improve personal and workplace well-being.Methods: A modified American Medical Association Mini-Z burnout survey was administered to library faculty in 2016 and both library faculty and staff in 2017. A three-month team-based game was implemented and assessed as an intervention to improve well-being among library employees. After the game, the burnout survey was re-administered to employees in 2018.Results: Library faculty scored poorly on burnout indicators, with 38%–73% of faculty reporting emotional exhaustion and 54%–91% reporting job-related stress over the years. In 2017, 62% of library staff members reported experiencing burnout and 38% indicated they felt a great deal of stress because of their jobs. Regarding the game intervention, 70% of post-game survey respondents reported that the game encouraged them to socialize with colleagues. Qualitative coding of survey responses resulted in 4 themes describing the most enjoyable aspects of the game: sociability, motivation, game play, and fun. Employees found that the game was a useful strategy for encouraging a more social culture with fun activities.Conclusions: Similar to previous studies of librarians and health professionals, health sciences librarians at our institution experienced burnout. Although the game intervention did not significantly reduce burnout or increase job satisfaction, it improved collegiality and recognition. Therefore, a workplace well-being game can encourage team building but may not sufficiently address the root causes of health sciences librarian burnout.

Burnout and its associated factors among healthcare workers and the general working population in Japan during the COVID-19 pandemic: a nationwide cross-sectional internet-based study

“…MZSIB has been established crosswalks from the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), which is a gold standard in burnout assessment; its reliability and validity in Japanese have been confirmed 28 29. Although MZSIB has been developed for physicians, it enquires about non-specific, self-reported stress and burnout symptoms and has been used with other healthcare professionals and non-HCWs, such as librarians 30. We obtained permission to use the Japanese version of MZSIB from the translators before the survey.…”

“…28 29 Although MZSIB has been developed for physicians, it enquires about non-specific, self-reported stress and burnout symptoms and has been used with other healthcare professionals and non-HCWs, such as librarians. 30 We obtained permission to use the Japanese version of MZSIB from the translators before the survey. The questionnaires and response options are shown in online supplemental method S1.…”