Quality of Care and Burnout: Individual and Organizational Factors

Abstract

Aims: This symposium will focus on the association between wellbeing (occupational stress, interpersonal relationships, burnout and engagement), organizational factors (job characteristics, team work, organizational culture) and quality of care in health care professionals (HPs). Specifically, the symposium will: 1. highlight how burnout and quality of care are interrelated 2. identify the role of individual factors and the organizational context in shaping HPs’ work experience and strain 3. demonstrate how complementary methodological approaches are necessary 4. argue for an organizational-level perspective in designing interventions to reduce burnout and improve quality of care. Rationale: One of the biggest risks in patient safety today is HPs themselves. The symposium invites both academics and practitioners to reflect on how the quality of HPs impacts on their patients’ care. There is a need to strategically link HPs wellbeing and performance outcomes. Complementary qualitative and quantitative research designs have the potential to better show the relationship between the individual and organizational levels of a health care system. Summary: Despite the resources spent in preventing burnout across Europe, the incidence of burnout among HPs keeps increasing. Five presentations illuminate the nexus between HPs wellbeing and quality of care. We will discuss: the role of interpersonal relationships in connecting occupational stress, quality of care, and the organizational culture in nurses (Todorova et al.), the association between quality of work, burnout, and perceived quality of care of the disabled (van der Doef et al.), how goal orientation predicts burnout and engagement in emergency nurses (Adriaenssens et al.), the effects of teamwork in predicting burnout and engagement using a multilevel design (Spânuet al.) and how physician burnout can be an indicator of the organizational functioning (Montgomery).