Feelings of professional fulfilment and exhaustion in mental health personnel: The importance of organisational and individual factors

Background: Mental health personnel are at high risk for mental illness, bu rnout and suicide. Previous studies of this group of professionals have ind icated the importance of organisational factors in explaining burnout, or e xhaustion, and work satisfaction. This study looks more systematically at t he contribution of organisational and individual factors to work-related ex haustion and to professional fulfilment, an expanded version of job satisfa ction. Methods: A cross-sectional study of 1, 051 psychiatrists and mental health nurses in the city of Stockholm was carried out by postal questionna ire with a previously validated instrument. Multiple and logistic regressio ns were used to identify predictors of exhaustion and professional fulfilme nt. Results: Organisational characteristics were found to be more important than individual characteristics in predicting exhaustion and professional fulfilment in mental health professionals. Conclusions: The results indicat e that the psychosocial work environment and well-being of mental health pr ofessionals can be improved by concentrating on organisational factors such as efficiency, personal development and goal quality.