Burnout and workload among clinical educators in physiotherapy teaching clinics: an observational study

Physiotherapy clinical educators play a key role in guiding students through practical training, but heavy teaching, managerial, and clinical demands increase their risk of burnout. Understanding the factor's influencing burnout is essential to support educators' wellbeing and maintain high-quality clinical education.

A cross-sectional study was conducted using an electronic survey distributed to 256 physiotherapy clinical educators from various accredited centers affiliated with the European University (Spain), with 143 completing the questionnaire. Burnout was measured using the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Descriptive statistics, correlations, and multiple linear regression were used to examine associations between sociodemographic and work-related variables and burnout dimensions, alongside a clinical interpretation of the scores.

Physiotherapy clinical educators exhibited moderate emotional exhaustion and moderate-to-high personal accomplishment and low-to-moderate depersonalization. No significant associations were found with age, sex, staff physiotherapist (no clinical educator) vs. clinical educator role, weekly tutoring hours, or resource availability. Descriptive analysis suggested slightly higher levels of burnout among managers/clinic directors, university internship coordinators, and clinical educators involved in schedule reorganization or reporting lack of resources, although these differences were not statistically significant. Regression analysis identified role satisfaction as the only significant predictor, being inversely associated with emotional exhaustion and positively associated with personal accomplishment.

Burnout among physiotherapy clinical educators is generally moderate. Enhancing role satisfaction and providing organizational support may reduce burnout and improve professional fulfillment, highlighting the importance of institutional strategies to support physiotherapy clinical educators.