Hospital Work Conditions and the Mediation Role of Burnout: Residents and Practicing Physicians Reporting Adverse Events

Abstract

Background: "Patient Safety" in everyday practices is a target of healthcare leaders, and adverse events reported by healthcare providers directly reflect patient safety in the health system. Recognising how residents and practising physicians rate adverse events concerning their work conditions and burnout must be explored.Objective: This study aims to explore the mediation effect of burnout dimensions (emotional exhaustion and burnout-interpersonal disengagement) between the effects of work conditions on perceived patient safety by exploring the adverse events that residents and practising physicians reported. Methods: A quantitative and cross-sectional study collected data from 249 residents and practising physicians in a huge teaching hospital and primary health care centre (PHC) in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Hayes Macro regression analysis was employed to evaluate the multiple mediation effect of burnout dimensions, with 5000 bootstrapping and a confidence interval (CI) of 95% for statistical inference and p≤0.05 for the significance level. Results: Leadership support (B= 0.39, t= 6.24, p<0.001) and physician engagement (B=0.43, t=6.50, p<0.001) were associated with a decreased rate of adverse events to patient safety, whereas workload (B=−0.23, t=−3.73, p<0.001) was negatively associated with an increased rate of adverse events. Burnout was shown to mediate the relationship between the effects of physician's leadership support (R 2 =0.26, F=27.50, p<0.001), work engagement (R 2 =0.25, F=27.07, p<0.001) and workload (R 2 =0.23, F=24.23, p<0.001) on the rate of adverse events. Conclusion:This study provides insights into burnout dimensions and their consequences on patient safety indicators (ie, adverse events). Work conditions (ie, leadership support, physician engagement, and workload) directly affect the rate of adverse events and indirectly through mediators like burnout-emotional exhaustion and burnout-interpersonal disengagement.

Working Conditions and Quality of Life in Healthcare: Mediating Roles of Burnout and Engagement, Moderated by Resilience and Self-Efficacy.

“…This observation aligns with our initial prediction, evidencing how these psychological factors affect the perception of the work environment and, consequently, WRQoL. The results corroborate the existing literature that identifies burnout and work engagement as crucial elements for workplace well-being [16][17][18][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57].…”

“…The significant mediation of work engagement and burnout in the relationship between working conditions and WRQoL is a key finding of our study. These results not only align with the existing literature, which identifies both burnout and work engagement as critical indicators of workplace well-being [16][17][18][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57], but also expand this knowledge. For example, the study by Gillen et al [16] on healthcare professionals in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic highlights the impact of burnout on quality of work life, which corresponds with our observations on the importance of burnout as a mediating factor.…”

“…Positive WRQoL has been observed to improve satisfaction and reduce absenteeism, whereas poor WRQoL can lead to burnout and affect patient care and health system efficiency [12][13][14][15]. Furthermore, studies have shown that commitment and compassion satisfaction mediate the positive relationship between personal resources and health, well-being, safety, and quality of care, as well as their negative relationship with psychosocial risks [55][56][57].…”

“…In addition, commitment and compassion satisfaction were shown to mediate the positive relationship between personal resources and health, well-being, safety, and quality of care [55,56], and their negative relationship with psychosocial risks [57].…”

Health hazards in sports: Exploring the influence of despotic leadership and perceived organizational politics on well-being

“…In light of recent high-profile cases, the rising workplace events have significantly caused global institutions to damage employees' psychological well-being [ 1 , 2 ]. Given this, the growing workplace vulnerabilities have been identified as the most crucial aspect of health harm [ 3 ].…”