Date of Conferral

2020

Degree

Doctor of Healthcare Administration, DHA

School

Health Services

Advisor

Suzanne Richins

Abstract

A healthcare employee’s ability to provide proficient, or quality, care to patients is impeded by burnout. Previous studies showed high levels of burnout is a common problem in healthcare, indicating there is a lack of support for employee health. The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine whether mindfulness training reduced burnout in healthcare professionals. The study focused on increasing knowledge between the leadership practices and programs used to improve healthcare proficiency by analyzing the relationship between mindfulness and three measures of burnout: sense of efficacy, depersonalization, and emotional exhaustion. The Western concept of mindfulness that emphasizes self-awareness and emotional intelligence was analyzed along with the biopsychological construct of burnout. The research questions were designed to determine whether a relationship exists between mindfulness and burnout. A set of pretest and posttest data, collected through the Maslach Burnout Inventory Human Service Survey before and after a mindfulness program with 136 participants, was analyzed using a MANOVA and simple linear regressions. The analyses for this study showed that levels of burnout, depersonalization, and emotional exhaustion in healthcare professionals improved after the mindfulness program. The results of this study contribute to positive social change by informing healthcare leadership on what programs contribute towards reducing employee burnout.

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