Burnout and occupational stress of home care rehabilitation professionals transitioning out of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario, Canada.
Behdin Nowrouzi-Kia, Emily King, Brydne Edwards and 9 others
PMID 39628905WHAT IT FOUND
Difficulty coping, unexpected events, and anger from lost control were reported as associated with high burnout among home care rehabilitation professionals.
Emotional exhaustion and feeling worn out were associated with high job stress.
Key findings
01Difficulty coping with daily tasks was associated with higher odds of high burnout.
02Unexpected occurrences were associated with higher odds of high burnout.
03Emotional exhaustion and feeling worn out were associated with higher odds of high job stress.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
Only 139 of about 420 invited staff completed the questionnaire, a response rate of about 33.1%. This may mean respondents were not representative. The study was cross-sectional and collected in fall 2021, after the pandemic peak. It cannot show cause or change over time. All participants worked for one nonprofit home care provider in Ontario. Other home care settings may differ. The sample was mostly occupational therapists, and physiotherapists and speech-language pathologists were small groups. The findings were analysed for home care rehabilitation professionals as a group. Stress and burnout were measured by self-report, and predictors were split at the median, so the analysis compared high and low groups rather than continuous risk. The paper called lack of control causing anger a significant predictor, but the confidence interval for its adjusted odds ratio was 0.90 to 9.40.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest. The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada funded the project.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the odds ratios as proof that any one factor caused burnout or job stress. The survey was cross-sectional and grouped several professions together, so it showed associations at one time point, not tested interventions.