BURNOUT IN ORTHOPEDIC PHYSICAL-THERAPISTS

Few studies exist about burnout in physical therapists. No research is available on burnout in orthopaedic therapists. The purpose of this s tudy was to determine if burnout exists in this group and if a relatio nship exists between burnout scores and selected variables. Members of the Orthopaedic Section of the American Physical Therapy Association from the east north central region of the United States were sent a su rvey consisting of demographic questions and the Maslach Burnout Inven tory. The return rate was 38.7%. Burnout levels were low to moderate d epending on the grouping used to examine the data. All of the variable s examined (eg., years as a physical therapist, number of patients see n per day) showed very low correlations with subscale scores. Further research is needed to identify those at most risk for burnout and to f ind effective strategies for its prevention.