Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Dec 28, 2020
Date Accepted: May 6, 2021
Frustration with technology and its relation to healthcare worker emotional exhaustion: A cross-sectional observational study
ABSTRACT
Background:
New technology adoption is common in healthcare, but may elicit frustration if end-users are not sufficiently considered in their design or trained in their use. These frustrations may contribute to burnout. This study sought to evaluate healthcare worker frustration with technology in relation to emotional exhaustion.
Objective:
To quantify healthcare worker frustration with technology and its relation with emotional exhaustion, after controlling for measures of work-life integration that may indicate excessive job demands.
Methods:
This was a cross-sectional observational study of healthcare workers across 31 Midwestern hospitals. We used the Safety, Communication, Operational Reliability, and Engagement (SCORE) survey to measure Work-Life Integration and Emotional Exhaustion among respondents. We used mixed-effects hierarchical linear regression to evaluate the relations between frustration with technology, other components of work-life integration, and emotional exhaustion, with adjustment for unit and healthcare worker characteristics.
Results:
Of 15,505 respondents, 5065 (32.7%) reported frustration with technology at least 3-5 days/week. Frustration with technology was associated with higher scores for the composite emotional exhaustion score (r = 0.35, P < .001) and each emotional exhaustion item (r 0.29 to 0.36, all P values < .001). Each 10-point increase in frustration with technology score was associated with a 1.2-point increase (95% CI 1.1-1.4) in emotional exhaustion (both on 100-point scales), after adjustment for other work-life integration items and unit and healthcare worker characteristics.
Conclusions:
This study found that frustration with technology and several other markers of work-life integration are independently associated with healthcare worker emotional exhaustion. Frustration with technology is common but not ubiquitous among healthcare workers, and is one of several work-life integration factors associated with emotional exhaustion. Minimizing frustration with healthcare technology may be an effective approach in reducing healthcare worker burnout. Clinical Trial: none
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