The experiences of support staff in a traumatic brain injury rehabilitation center.

Abstract

Purpose: Employee turnover is a major issue for health care organizations. Burnout is a leading contributor to such turnover. Extensive research on burnout has been conducted in health care settings; however, it has primarily been focused on health care professionals ignoring other critical staff. In particular, traumatic brain injury rehabilitation is an area of health care that includes unique challenges and stressors that may contribute to burnout. Brain injury professionals report experiencing high levels of burnout that further increase as they spend more time with patients; however, little is known about the experiences of brain injury paraprofessionals. This study explores the unique experiences of support staff in traumatic brain injury rehabilitation centers. Method: The present study used a grounded theory method to explore the phenomena of burnout, turnover, and job satisfaction from the perspective of paraprofessional support staff in 1 posthospital brain injury rehabilitation center. Support staff participated in the research via small group interviews (N = 4) and survey (N = 11). Results: The analysis resulted in a grounded theory model, entitled "The Balance model of Rehabilitation Support Work." This model is a framework of risk and protective factors that appeared to influence whether these frontline rehabilitation staff experienced negative outcomes from this often challenging/stressful work environment. The model includes 4 axial-level themes: doing the work, protective factors, risk factors, and imbalance of factors. Within the 4 axial categories are twenty open-coding level categories. Implications: Implications for traumatic brain injury rehabilitation organizations and areas for future research are discussed. Impact and ImplicationsThe imbalance of risk and protective factors can lead support staff to experience of burnout and turnover. Support staff are committed to their work and patient care, but team and organizational level factors can lead to burnout and turnover. Organizational level changes that increase protective factors and reduce risk factors can improve support staff work experience and patient care.