Personal value fulfillment predicts burnout and wellbeing amongst Australian General Practitioners

Abstract

Value fulfillment has recently been proposed as fundamental to the development and prevention of burnout, although this remains untested. The present study distributed a survey to Australian General Practitioners (primary care physicians), yielding a sample of 1,157 individuals. Participants were asked about their burnout and wellbeing levels, autonomy, personal values and value fulfillment, and professional diversification. Value fulfillment was moderately, negatively correlated with burnout (r = .53), with post-hoc tests noting each level of wellbeing was associated with a higher degree of value fulfillment. A hierarchical regression showed that value fulfillment predicted a further 10% of variance in burnout levels after controlling for professional autonomy and satisfaction. These results suggest value fulfillment may represent an important avenue for further theoretical and interventional research to prevent burnout and promote wellbeing. The results support a holistic, rather than professionally-bound, conceptualization of burnout.