| Abstract |
Introduction: International literature highlights the relationship between work
engagement and burnout, especially in particularly stressful occupations, such as
health care. Although there is a study in the population of doctors, nurses and other
health professionals, there are no strong indications for the administrators of these
services.
Aim: The present study attempted to study the population of administrators of
Primary Health Care (PHC) structures in Crete and asked two key research questions.
What is the relationship between work engagement and burnout in the administrative
employees of the PHC structures of the 7th Health Region? Which characteristics of
the employees affect work engagement and burnout levels and in what direction?
Methods: A synchronous study was conducted in the period 2020-2021 on a sample
of 81 administrative employees of Healthcare Centers (HC) and Local Healthcare
Units (LHU) in Crete (7th Health Region) (response rate> 90%). For the needs of the
study, we used the Greek validated versions of two psychometric tools, the UWES-15
psychometric tool for the assessment of work engagement and its three dimensions
(vigor, dedication & absorption) and the OLBI psychometric tool for the measurement
of burnout and its two dimensions (exhaustion & disengagement). In UWES-15, the
scores per dimension are obtained by calculating the average value of all answers, and
the final score is obtained by adding the scores of the three dimensions. The scores of
the total scale and each dimension separately range from 0 to 6 indicating increased
levels of engagement the higher the score, as described above (0: never - 6: always).
The final score of OLBI is obtained by adding the scores of the two dimensions,
which derives from the average value of the answers. The analysis was conducted by
parametric two-sided tests, at significance level α = 0.05 in IBM SPSS 26.00. Two-
Samples Independent T-Test and Pearson’s correlation coefficient rho tests were
applied.
Results: Work engagement was measured at medium-high levels (score 3.76). The
dimension of vigor was measured at higher levels (score 3.86), with the dimensions of
absorption and dedication following with a score of 3.73 and 3.67 respectively (0-2:
low levels, 2-3: medium levels, 3-5: high levels, 5-6: very high levels). Also, the
levels of burnout were found at high-very high levels (34.96), with the dimension of
disengagement being at lower levels than the dimension of exhaustion (16.8 vs. 18.1
Public Health-Primary Health Care-Health Services
School of Medicine – University of Crete
vi
respectively) (the higher the score -especially above 25- the higher the levels, there
are no specific limits/cut-offs). The relationship between work engagement and
burnout was found to be statistically significant and negative (rho = -0.78,
Pvalue<0.001), while work engagement seems to explain over 60% of burnout trends.
Statistically significant differences between demographic characteristics and burnout
don’t appear in our study population, except for the employer (HC and LCH) which is
not considered essential due to the inequality of the sample between the two types of
PHC structures. However, in terms of work engagement, it was found that it differs
based on age and marital status. In particular, older people and those who are married
seem to have higher levels of engagement.
Conclusion: The degree of work engagement seems to reduce the levels of burnout
and the relationship between the two is reciprocal to the administrative staff of PHC.
Further study is needed to identify causative correlations and other risk factors, but we
can already make some suggestions for controlling burnout in this area as well.
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Συσχέτιση της επαγγελματικής δέσμευσης με την επαγγελματική εξουθένωση των Διοικητικών υπαλλήλων που εργάζονται στις δομές Πρωτοβάθμιας Φροντίδας Υγείας της 7ης Υ.ΠΕ. Κρήτης
