Burnout in UK care home staff and its effect on staff turnover: MARQUE English national care home longitudinal survey

BACKGROUND: staff burnout and turnover lead to care home residents receiving poorer quality care. Burnout is thought to cause turnover, but this has never been investigated. We know little about which care home staffs are burnt out. AIMS: to explore burnout’s relationship with staff turnover and prevalence and predictors of burnout. METHOD: we calculated the relationship between Maslach Burnout Inventory scores and future staff turnover (12-month number of staff leaving/number employed). We explored staff, resident and care home predictors of burnout, measured as emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalisation (DP) and personal accomplishment (PA). RESULTS: two-thousand sixty-two care staff in 97 care home units participated. Median yearly staff turnover was 22.7%, interquartile range (IQR) 14.0–37.7%. Care staff recorded low median burnout (median EE: 14, IQR: 7–22; DP: 1, IQR: 0–5; PA 42, IQR: 36–45). We found no association between staff burnout and turnover rate. Younger staff age was associated with higher burnout (EE coefficient − 0.09; 95% confidence interval (CI): −0.13, −0.05; DP −0.02; 95% CI: −0.04, −0.01; PA 0.05; 95% CI: 0.02, 0.08). Speaking English as a second language predicted higher EE (1.59; 95% CI: 0.32, 2.85), males had higher DP (0.02; 95% CI: 0.01, 0.04) and staff working only night shifts lower PA (−2.08; 95% CI: −4.05, −1.30). CONCLUSIONS: we found no association between care homes staff burnout level and staff turnover rates. It is a myth that burnout levels are high. Interventions for burnout could focus on at-risk groups. Future studies could consider turnover at an individual level.