Burnout and Perceived Workload Among Behavioral Health Providers During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Importance of Supervisory, Leadership, and Organizational Support.

Abstract

Purpose: To assess the relationship between behavioral health provider (BHP) perceptions of support during COVID-19 and burnout and self-reported workload.

Design: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of provider-level data collected from the 2020 and 2021 All Employee Survey (AES).

Setting: The Veterans Health Administration.

Subjects: 36,541 (10,332 [28.28%] with missing data) respondents in 2020 and 2021 combined.

Measures: Main outcomes were self-reported burnout and self-reported workload. Main predictors were 6 COVID-19-related provider-perceived support domains. Covariates were 11 AES demographic predictors.

Analysis: We conducted mixed-effects logistic regression modeling for each domain and outcome pairing. We summarized our results using average marginal effects (AMEs) and odds ratios (ORs).

Results: All 6 domains of feeling prepared, heard, protected, cared for, honored, and having flexible policies were significantly negatively associated with burnout (AMEs -.20 to -.10, ORs .38-.63, P < .001) and positively associated with reasonable workload (AMEs .11-.20, ORs 1.63-2.59, P < .001). Feeling prepared had the largest associations with burnout (OR .38) and reasonable workload (OR 2.59).

Conclusion: Creating a work environment with flexible policies and where staff feel prepared, heard, protected, cared for, and honored could support BHPs in feeling less burned out and that their workload is reasonable.