Emotional exhaustion and health impairment of Italian public healthcare workers from the JD-R model perspective

<ns3:p>Purpose The Italian healthcare system is facing complex and difficult obstacles characterised by the reduction of the public healthcare budget, the reduction of the workforce and the low motivation of those who remain. This study examines the effects of emotional exhaustion and health impairment among public health workers (HW). Methods We collected data from 843 employees of a public hospital in northern Italy using an online survey, we conducted the analysis on a valid sample of 534 HW. We tested a mediated structural equation model aimed at predicting health impairments. Results The results show that emotional exhaustion plays a mediating role between job demands and health impairments as well as between personal resources and health impairments. Furthermore, the results emphasise the direct impact of job resources on employees’ health impairment. Conclusions Our findings highlight the complexity of public HW experiences and provide evidence for strategic interventions to optimise the psychophysical health of public HW. By understanding the factors that have the greatest impact on the mental and physical health of healthcare workers, we could develop customised strategies to promote staff wellbeing in high-pressure environments such as public health.</ns3:p>