An examination of mobbing and burnout of residents

Mobbing and burnout in human resources management are important topics in labor psychology. It is important to research the levels of mobbing and burnout of human resources in the health sector, primarily in doctors. Although there have been some studies on the mobbing and burnout of doctors, there has been a limited number of studies on the relationship between mobbing and burnout in the health sector. This study aims to examine the relationship between mobbing and burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, personal accomplishment) levels of resident doctors at a public university research and training hospital in Turkey and to investigate whether mobbing and burnout levels vary significantly according to gender, marital status, medical branch and age.

This study was conducted on resident doctors at the Ondokuz Mayıs University Research and Training Hospital between 01.04.2009 and 30.06.2009. Legal permission for the study was received from the Rector's Office of Ondokuz Mayıs University. The Maslach Burnout Inventory for measuring burnout levels in doctors and the Leymann Inventory of Psychological Terror for measuring doctors' mobbing levels were the research instruments employed. Sampling was not used in this study. The aim was to administer the research instruments to all the residents (the universe of this study consisted of 510 assistant doctors). 52.94 % of residents responded to all of the questions in these instruments. In the data analysis, a t-test, ANOVA, regression analysis and descriptive statistics were used.

At the end of the analyses, it was found that the mean mobbing level of residents is 1.97; the mean emotional exhaustion level of residents is 2.97; the mean level of depersonalization is 2.95; and the mean level of personal accomplishment is 2.94. Mobbing and burnout levels of residents vary significantly in terms of medical branch.

This study indicated that there are relationships between mobbing, emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and personal accomplishment. Mobbing is a significant regressor for emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and personal accomplishment in this study.