Askelson and Steere Co-Author Study Examining Burnout in COVID-19 Public Health Workers
Natoshia Askelson, senior research fellow in residence, and Eliza Steere, graduate research assistant, of the Health Policy Research Program co-authored a study aiming to understand how micropolitan public health workers (PHWs) experienced burnout antecedents during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study is published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
Conducting in-depth guided discussions with representatives from 16 micropolitan public health departments, the authors found that antecedents of burnout stem from organizational and external forces, most notably within the workload, control, reward, and values dimensions of the Six Areas of Worklife model, as well as instances of workplace violence. The findings support organization-level approaches to reducing and preventing burnout in the micropolitan public health workforce, and specific dimensions of the Six Areas of Worklife model are addressed.