Social support moderates the relationship between burnout and job satisfaction in aerodigestive team members.

OBJECTIVES: Burnout among healthcare workers is a public health crisis. Burnout is associated with elevated cynicism, emotional exhaustion, and low job satisfaction. Methods to combat burnout have been challenging to identify. Based on positive experiences of pediatric aerodigestive team members, we hypothesized that social support in multidisciplinary aerodigestive teams moderates the effects of burnout on job satisfaction.

METHODS: Using a survey of the Aerodigestive Society, members of Aerodigestive teams (N = 119) completed demographics, the Maslach Burnout Inventory, and measures of job satisfaction, emotional, and instrumental social support. In addition to assessing relationships between components of burnout and job satisfaction, six tests were conducted using PROCESS to ascertain the degree to which social support moderated these relationships.

RESULTS: Similar to US healthcare base rates, burnout scores in this sample suggest that a third-to-half felt Emotionally Exhausted and Burned Out from work "A few times a month"-to-"Every Day." Simultaneously, however, the majority in sample (60.6%) noted feeling that they "positively impact others' lives" with 33.3% endorsing "Every Day." Job satisfaction was strikingly high at 89%, with most reporting Aerodigestive team affiliation related to higher job satisfaction. Both Emotional and Instrumental social support moderated the effect of Cynicism and Emotional Exhaustion on Job Satisfaction, with higher Job Satisfaction scores in conditions of high support.

CONCLUSIONS: These results support the hypothesis that social support from a multidisciplinary aerodigestive team moderates the effect of burnout in its team members. Further work is needed to understand if membership in other interprofessional healthcare teams can help combat the negative effects of burnout.