Initial validation of a single-item burnout measure among rural healthcare professionals

Burnout is an impactful and highly prevalent concern within healthcare systems. Identifying a valid, accessible measure of this occupational phenomenon is crucial to its identification, intervention, and evaluation. The objective of this study was to compare a newly developed, positively phrased, burnout question to the Mini-Z single-item emotional exhaustion and a single-item depersonalization item.

Using cross-sectional survey data from four rural hospitals in the United States Mountain West (n = 457), we utilized Cohen's kappa statistics, intraclass correlation coefficients, and Bland-Altman plots to assess agreement for dichotomous and continuous versions of the new, single-item burnout measure with the gold standard emotional exhaustion and depersonalization single items.

Based on the new Utah single-item measure, the prevalence of burnout was 30.4%; however, it was 39.4% and 19.3% as measured by emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, respectively. Our analysis demonstrated a substantial level of agreement with the Mini-Z single-item emotional exhaustion (Cohen's kappa: 0.61; intraclass correlation coefficient: 0.64) and a fair level of agreement with the single-item depersonalization (Cohen's kappa: 0.36; intraclass correlation coefficient: 0.49).

Burnout can be easily, quickly, and routinely screened among healthcare professionals. Further, when medical professionals are regularly assessed for increased burnout, proactive team and system-level steps can be implemented to prevent burnout from occurring or worsening. Our findings suggest initial validation of a new, positively phrased single-item burnout measure, showing substantial agreement with the widely used Mini-Z emotional exhaustion item.