Burnout, Engagement, and Organizational Culture: Differences between Physicians and Nurses

Burnout results from a prolonged response to chronic emotional and interpersonal workplace stressors. The focus of research has been widened to job engagement.

Purpose of the study was to examine associations between burnout, job engagement, work demands, and organisational culture (OC) and to demonstrate differences between physicians and nurses working in general hospital in Skopje, Republic of Macedonia.

Maslach Burnout Inventory and Utrecht Work Engagement Scale were used for assessment of burnout and job engagement. Work demands and OC were measured with Hospital Experience Scale and Competing Values Framework, respectively.

Higher scores of dedication, hierarchy OC, and organizational work demands were found in physicians. Nurses demonstrated higher scores of clan OC. Burnout negatively correlated with clan and market OC in physicians and nurses. Job engagement positively correlated with clan and market OC in nurses. Different work demands were related to different dimensions of burnout and/or job engagement. Our findings support job demands-resources (JD-R) model (Demerouti and Bakker).

Data obtained can be used in implementation of specific organizational interventions in the hospital setting. Providing adequate JD-R interaction can lead to prevention of burnout in health professionals (HPs) and contribute positively to better job engagement in HPs and higher quality of patient care.