Date of Award
8-1-2022
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Knutson, Douglas
Second Advisor
Chwalisz, Kathleen
Abstract
Employee turnover is a major issue that health care organizations experience. One factor that contributes significantly to turnover is burnout. A significant amount of research on burnout has been conducted in health care settings, however it has primarily focused on health care professionals. Several job characteristics that associated with burnout may be particularly impactful for non-professionals. An area of health care that provides unique challenges and stressors is that of traumatic brain injury rehabilitation. Brain injury professionals report experience burnout and report experiencing higher levels of burnout the more time they spend with patients. There is a lack of research on the unique experiences of support staff in traumatic brain injury rehabilitation centers. This study explored the phenomena of burnout, turnover, and job satisfaction from the perspective of support staff in a post-hospital brain injury rehabilitation center. I conducted group interviews and administered surveys to explore the unique experiences of support staff. I used grounded theory method to analyze data. The analysis resulted in a balance model of support staff’s work experience. This model is a framework of risk and protective factors that appeared to influence whether these frontline rehabilitation staff experienced negative outcomes from this often challenging/stressful work environment. The model includes four axial categories: Doing the Work; Protective Factors; Risk Factors; and Imbalance of Factors. Within the four axial categories are twenty open-coding level categories. Implications for brain injury rehabilitation organizations and areas for future research are discussed.
Access
This dissertation is only available for download to the SIUC community. Current SIUC affiliates may also access this paper off campus by searching Dissertations & Theses @ Southern Illinois University Carbondale from ProQuest. Others should contact the interlibrary loan department of your local library or contact ProQuest's Dissertation Express service.