An exploration of burnout, moral distress, and moral injury: A nationwide survey of their influence on well-being in physical therapists

Background: Physical therapists experience burnout associated with an imbalance of work demands and resources. Burnout in other healthcare professions is attributed to the intention to leave work, decreased quality of care, and poor well-being. Moral injury may lead to poor well-being as current burnout interventions have limited effectiveness. The purpose of this study is to examine whether burnout and/or moral injury are related to physical therapist intention to leave their job or profession, poor quality of patient care and well-being and to identify factors predictive of burnout and/or moral injury. Methods: Licensed physical therapists from a nationwide sample received an email with a link to survey questions related to burnout, moral injury, work-related factors, intention to leave the job and profession, quality of care, and poor well-being. Descriptive statistics and inferential analysis identified strong associations among burnout, moral injury, work factors, quality of care and poor well-being. Multiple regression determined factors related to and predictive of burnout and moral injury. Results: Burnout was most strongly associated with work exhaustion, poor well-being, and lesser quality of care in physical therapists. The overall model predicting burnout was significant and accounted for 48% of the variance with all seven predictors: organizational environment, working hours, work autonomy, workload, financial satisfaction, moral distress, and moral courage as predictors. Likewise, moral injury was most strongly associated with lesser quality of patient care followed by poor well-being. The overall model predicting moral injury accounted for 48% of the variance with four of the seven predictors considered: organizational environment, workload, moral distress, and moral courage. Discussion and Conclusion: There is evidence for the use of organizational environment and moral distress as screening tools predicting burnout and moral injury. Organizational environment and moral distress are modifiable factors that should be incorporated as mitigating factors to prevent or reduce burnout and moral injury in physical therapists. Further exploration of the work environment and the coping strategies in use is paramount, considering the high prevalence and extent of burnout and moral injury within physical therapists. Their consequences pose a great risk to the profession, physical therapists, patients and society at large.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Physical Therapy

Grantor

Texas Woman's University

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Miller, Kenneth L

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Thomas, Jodi

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Thompson, Mary
• Rubin, Linda

• Burnout
• Moral injury
• Mental health
• Well-being

Language dc:language.iso

English

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/11274/16907

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:twu-ir.tdl.org:11274/16907