Work engagement in health professions education^*

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Health care professionals who are engaged in their work are more resilient, dedicated and absorbed. They experience less burnout and are healthier. Work-engaged professionals are pro-active in attaining work goals and striving for excellence. Research reports better performance of work-engaged professionals in both teaching and patient care. Both resources in work (e.g. performance feedback or autonomy) and personal resources (e.g. optimism or self-efficacy) will boost work engagement. Resources help achieve work goals, stimulate personal development and help cope with demands. There is a considerable individual variation in both the appreciation and need for specific job resources as well as the extent to which individuals are equipped with personal resources, suggesting tailored interventions are required. The engagement of health care professionals often turns out to differ with regard to the various work roles they perform (care provider, teacher, researcher), suggesting role-specific interventions are required. In order to facilitate health care professionals in their well-being and to enable optimal performance and sustainable practice, health care organizations should foster stimulating job resources and development of personal resources for a highly engaged workforce. As individuals with more personal resources are able to generate more job resources, we call on educators and students to continue to pay explicit attention to the development of personal resources.

Figure 1. Job demands-resources model Bakker and Demerouti (2007).

Figure 2. Work engagement model Bakker (2011).

Bakker AB, Demerouti E. 2007. The job demands-resources model: state of the art. J Manag Psychol. 22:309–328.

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Bakker AB. 2011. An evidence-based model of work engagement. Curr Dir Psychol Sci.Science20:265–269.

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