Efficacy of online mental health education on occupational burnout among medical staff

Objective

To understand the levels of occupational burnout, anxiety, and depression among medical staff, to construct a mental health model for medical staff based on personality traits and demographic variables. Design and validate the effectiveness of health education via an online platform.

Methods

Using an online questionnaire platform, demographic and occupational information was collected from healthcare workers in the medical community of the First People’s Hospital of Linping District. The Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ), Job Burnout Inventory, Generalized Anxiety Disorder Self-Assessment Scale-7 (GAD-7), Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), and psychological introspection were used to build a mental health model. For those identified with occupational burnout, an online mental health education program was conducted once a week for four weeks, focusing on self-emotional identification and management. The effectiveness of the program was re-evaluated one month later.

Results

Out of 1127 questionnaires, the rate of positive occupational burnout was 22.1%. The analysis revealed that age (OR = 0.965, 95%CI 0.944–0.987), experiencing medical violence (OR = 2.585, 95%CI 1.829–3.654), treatment identification (OR = 0.831, 95%CI 0.753–0.917), medical versus nursing positions (OR = 0.654, 95%CI 0.468–0.914), administrative versus nursing positions (OR = 0.436, 95%CI 0.229–0.828) were significantly associated with the occurrence of occupational burnout. In addition, the EPQ test indicated that introverted personality (OR = 2.078, 95% CI 1.282–3.367, P = 0.003) and unstable personality (OR = 3.365, 95% CI 2.172–5.214, P < 0.001) increased the risk of occupational burnout, whereas extroverted personality (OR = 0.394, 95% CI 0.231–0.672, P = 0.001) and stable personality (OR = 0.347, 95% CI 0.231–0.522, P < 0.001) reduced it. Before and after the online mental health education intervention, self-comparison found that the participants showed significant improvement in emotional exhaustion (t = 3.520), depersonalization (t = 2.035), reduced personal accomplishment (t = 4.749), total burnout score (t = 5.952), PHQ-9 (t = 4.017), and GAD-7 (t = 4.234). However, compared to healthcare workers who have experienced medical violence, the average improvement rate in overall burnout scores for those who have not experienced medical violence is 9.28% higher (t = 2.172).

Conclusion

With increasing age, the risk of occupational burnout may decrease, while experiencing medical violence, being in a nursing position, and having an introverted or unstable personality are significant risk factors for occupational burnout. Online mental health education is effective in improving occupational burnout among healthcare workers, but its effectiveness is impacted by experiencing medical violence. However, this study’s limitations include potential underestimation of the education’s effectiveness due to insufficient adherence measures and the use of a single-institution sample, which may limit generalizability.