The relationship between supervisor leadership qualities and home -based clinician burnout

Research suggests that mental health agencies providing therapy to children and families in their home experience high levels of clinician turnover. It is assumed that innate challenges of the job, such as complex mental health problems, dangerous settings, inconsistent work environment, and lack of colleague support, lead to lower job satisfaction and ultimate clinician burnout. Types of supervision, particularly those involving a transformational leadership style, have been linked to job satisfaction in other professional industries. This study was designed to explore the factors related to job satisfaction for home-based clinicians, and specifically to explore how supervisor leadership style may relate. Surveys were completed anonymously by home-based clinicians working at agencies throughout the United States. Participants completed measures on demographics, job satisfaction, burnout, and supervisor leadership styles, including the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire. Descriptive statistics revealed that participants reported a high level of job satisfaction. Correlations suggested that transformational style of leadership held a strong relationship with several underlying components of job satisfaction, which implied that this type of supervisory leadership style may be useful when trying to retain clinicians in the home-based setting. Further research is needed to explore the potential causal nature of this relationship and the possible benefits of trainings for supervisory staff