Managing the risk of low job satisfaction and professional burnout of general practitioners

Increased work requirements accompanied by a long period of continuous exposure are the most common predictors of burnout syndrome among healthcare workers. The great variability of Russian and foreign data on prevalence of burnout among healthcare workers indicates some unaccounted factors determining different levels of the studied phenomenon as well as unresolved evaluation and technological approaches to its early prevention within healthcare personnel management.

The aim of the study was to create a model for predicting and managing the risks of occupational burnout among general practitioners. A survey was conducted among general practitioners (n = 340) employed at healthcare institutions in Moscow in the period from 2022 to 2023. The survey relied on using the Russian version of the international psychosocial questionnaire COPSOQ III (Long version) adapted for healthcare workers. Burnout levels in doctors with low job satisfaction were determined with reliability p ≤ 0.05 by the Kruskal – Wallis test. Prediction was calculated by using linear regression analysis; models of qualitative target variables were calculated using the Decision Tree method. Relative risks and odds ratio (95 % CI) were calculated as a quantitative measure of effects.

Statistically significant differences per 38 psychosocial factors were confirmed at p < 0.0001. In a representative sample of doctors with low job satisfaction, those with the high level of burnout accounted for 1.72 %; ‘Norm’, 43.10 %; ‘Low’, 55.18 %. On the example of the Decision Tree model, the study described an algorithm for managing evaluation parameters of low job satisfaction, which was significant for managing risks of occupational burnout in general practitioners and depended on intra-organizational psychosocial factors ‘Uncertainty over Working Conditions’, ‘Work Life Conflicts’ and ‘Depressive symptoms’ and contributed to an increase up to 80 % or decrease down to 3.0 % depending on their impact in an occupational environment.

The study findings substantiate the fact that an increase in medical and social effectiveness of healthcare workers can be based on employing developed organizational technologies for preventing critical levels of low job satisfaction and occupational burnout in general practitioners as well as declining quality of rendered healthcare services. The risk management algorithm offers to consider levels of job dissatisfaction, occupational burnout and the factors with the greatest influence of psychosocial working conditions and individual traits of general practitioners.