Association between physician burnout and self-efficacy among rural physicians in Liaoning, China

Abstract

Since the high turnover intention is prevalent among rural physicians and job burnout has been proved to be related to the high turnover intention of the health professionals. There is a great need to identify protective factors from burnout among rural physicians. One of them may be self-efficacy. This study examines the connection between burnout and self-efficacy among rural physicians in Liaoning, China. 367 rural physicians in Liaoning Province (184 in high-resource areas and 183 in low-resource areas) were selected as a sample using the convenience sampling method. The survey instruments were two questionnaires which included: (1) Maslach Burnout Inventory– General Survey and (2) General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE). Both instruments showed good reliability and validity. Data was analyzed using Multiple ordinal logistic regression analysis. The findings revealed that self-efficacy is significantly related to all the components of burnout among rural physicians. In conclusion, the study detected that self-efficacy was negatively correlated with job burnout. Self-efficacy plays a protective factor role against the components of burnout in rural physicians. So, special attention should be paid to improving self-efficacy as an important part of burnout prevention programs in rural physicians.