Stress and burnout in physical therapists

Background: Psychological stress can be viewed as occurring when demands exceed an individual’s adaptive capacity. Burnout is an occupational, psychological syndrome defined by three dimensions, high emotional exhaustion (EE), high depersonalization (DP) and feelings of low personal accomplishment (PA). Much is known about stress and burnout in physicians and nurses and their association with poorer quality of care, increased medical errors, and attrition. Although a few older studies have examined burnout in physical therapists (PT), most have focused on specific practice settings or geographic regions and the findings have been inconsistent. No studies of stress in PTs have been identified. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to measure the prevalence of burnout and perceived stress in a national sample of PT members of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) and to determine if high-perceived stress is associated with any dimensions of burnout. Methods: A cross-sectional survey design was used in which recruitment was done through an e-mail invitation to a stratified sample of 6,500 PT members of the APTA. The invitation asked PTs to agree to participate in the study and to complete an on-line survey that included 1) the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Health Services Scale (MBI-HSS, 2) the Perceived Stress Scale-10 (PSS10), and 3) demographic questions. Results: Of the 1,366 PTs who completed the survey, 69% were female and 92% were white, which is similar to the PT membership of the APTA. More than a quarter of the PTs (29%) were found to have high emotional exhaustion. Burnout, defined as high EE, high DP and low PA was found in 13% of PTs. High perceived stress, which was found in 15% of PTs, was found to have a modest relationship with EE (r(1,338)=.21, p=.006) and a moderately strong relationship with burnout (r(1,338)=.359, p<.001). Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that 29% of PTs are experiencing high emotional exhaustion and 13% have burnout. In addition, 15% of PTs have high-perceived stress which was found to be associated with high EE and burnout.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical referencesby Ellen Zambo Anderso