Emotional Exhaustion in Healthcare Workers Moving Beyond Coping Skills to Improve Organizational Conditions

Objective: Emotional exhaustion (EE)-the first stage of burnout-is related to preventable work environment exposures. We examined the understudied impact of organizational support for safety (OSS) and safety hazards (SH) on EE in a mixed licensed and unlicensed population of healthcare workers (HCWs). Methods: Awork environment exposures survey was conducted in five US public healthcare facilities in 2018-2019. A total of 1059 questionnaires were collected from a predominantly female population of mixed HCWs. Results: Mean EE scores were higher among women, direct care workers, and younger subjects. In linear regression models, EE was positively associated with SH, emotional labor, psychological demands, physical demands, job strain, assault, and negative acts, while OSS was negatively associated. Safety hazard s both mediated and moderated the relationship between OSS and EE. Conclusions: When perception of SH is high, OSS has less impact on reducing EE, suggesting a need to effectively put safety policies to practice for improving EE in HCWS.