Value motivations predict burnout and intentions to leave among mental health professionals

Abstract

Background: Values guide and potentially motivate people in their lives. Aligning personal values with organisational values has the potential to improve job satisfaction, reduce burnout and lower Intentions To Leave (ITL).

Aims: To determine whether changes in Value Motivation (VM) predict burnout and ITL following training.

Method: Participants were staff from a Mental Health (MH) organisation in Australia. They participated in the Collaborative Recovery Training Programme (CRTP) and completed pre- and post-measures of values, general health, burnout and ITL.

Results: Increasingly holding work values due to guilt and shame predicted higher burnout after training. Increases in intrinsically held values predicted less ITL after training.

Conclusions: Attending to and clarifying VM’s has the potential to decrease burnout and ITL. Training programmes should focus on understanding the importance of values in reducing burnout and turnover rates among MH professionals.

• Burnout
• extrinsic
• intention to leave
• intrinsic
• mental health
• value motivation