Burnout in physiotherapists: Use of clinical supervision and desire for emotional closeness or distance to clients

Aims: This study aimed to investigate burnout among physiotherapists in hospitals within four health districts in South Tyrol (the German and Italian speaking area of Italy). Method: Data were collected anonymously by envelope. The German version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI-D) (Bussing and Perrar, 1992; Bussing and Glaser, 1998), socio-demographic, occupational data, the use of clinical supervision or support and the desire for emotional distance and closeness to clients were recorded. Questionnaires were sent to 191 physiotherapists in South Tyrol; and 132 participated in the study (return rate 69.63%). Results: In the MBI-D, which contains three scales: ‘emotional exhaustion’, ‘depersonalisation’ and ‘personal accomplishment’; the risk of burnout is reflected in high values in the emotional exhaustion and the depersonalisation scales and low values in personal accomplishment. The present study found that about 35% of the physiotherapists who responded to the questionnaire showed burnout risk i...