PREDICTION OF GRIEF AND HIV AIDS-RELATED BURNOUT IN VOLUNTEERS

Burnout in volunteer workers in the HIV/AIDS area results in the loss of dedicated personnel, consequently straining the HIV/AIDS care deliv ery system. By assessing the predictors of burnout and grief this stud y describes the role of grief in HIV/AIDS volunteer burnout. Voluntary and anonymous questionnaires were sent to members of the Foundation f or interfaith Research and Ministry (FIRM), a multi-religious organiza tion formed to provide volunteer work in HIV/AIDS care facilities arou nd Houston, Texas. In 174 valid responses, grief was measured against work characteristics, burnout, rewards, stressors, and the general hea lth questionnaire (GHQ). No significant relationship was found between grief and burnout; however, burnout in volunteers may be different fr om that in health care professionals for the following reasons: (1) vo lunteers choose to work in the HIV/AIDS area; (2) they have control ov er the time they spend volunteering; (3) volunteers are internally mot ivated to work in the HIV/AIDS area; and (4) if the volunteer does not enjoy the work, they can terminate their involvement with minimal cos t. The best univariate predictors of grief are time spent as a volunte er and volunteer hours per week, where those who spend the most hours volunteering experience less grief. The Reward/Stress measures most si gnificantly associated with grief include empathy/self-knowing reward, emotional support reward, and emotional overload stress. The stronges t predictors of grief in the regression analysis, which account for 21 % of the variance, were time as a volunteer, emotional support, emotio nal overload, GHQ-somatic symptoms, and GHQ-social dysfunction. The da ta suggest that in order to reduce grief, special attention should be paid to allowing volunteers freely to express problems with emotional overload and workload adjustments, and providing clear emotional suppo rt as a reward.