BURNOUT AND COLLEGIAL SUPPORT IN STATE PSYCHIATRIC-HOSPITAL STAFF

To determine the correlates of burnout, 47 employees of a state psychi atric hospital completed measures of burnout, collegial support, prolo nged anxiety, physical health, and job attitude. Results showed that b urnout was associated positively with anxiety, frequency of illness, a nd contrary job attitudes, and correlated negatively with level of sat isfaction with the collegial support network. Partial correlations sho wed that satisfaction with support systems diminished the effects of b urnout on frequency of illness and job attitudes. Tests for divergent validity showed that these findings were specific to burnout and not o ther measures of job satisfaction or fulfillment. The results suggest that facilitating staff satisfaction with colleagues may reduce burnou t and some of its deleterious effects.