Interprofessional collaboration in Family's Houses in Norway. Predicting burnout, engagement and job satisfaction.

Abstract

This study examined several aspects of working conditions in Family’s Houses in Norway. The aim of the study was to investigate the level of interprofessional collaboration, and how the child welfare workers perceive their working conditions compared to employees in other services. Another objective of the study was to see how job demands and resources, including interprofessional collaboration, would predict burnout, engagement and job satisfaction in the Family’s House, according to the Job Demands - Resources Model (Demerouti et al., 2001). The data was collected amongst employees in six Family’s Houses that were established as a part of a pilot project. The sample size was 71, of which 20 were child welfare workers. The results indicated a general positive perception of collaboration in Family’s Houses compared to the results from two earlier studies in Norway. Contrary to hypothesized findings, child welfare workers showed a higher job satisfaction and a lower level of cynicism than professionals from other services in the Family’s House. The analysis showed that job demands and job resources predicted significant parts of the variation in exhaustion and job satisfaction. Inconsistent with expected findings, satisfaction with leadership had a positive relation with exhaustion. Collaboration did not predict burnout, engagement or job satisfaction.

Keywords: Family Centre, Family's House, interprofessional collaboration, burnout, engagement, job satisfaction

Familien Hus er et tverrfaglig kommunalt tilbud hvor ulike helse- og omsorgstjenester for barn og familier er samlokaliserte. Denne studien omhandler hvordan ansatte i Familiens Hus i Norge vurderer ulike aspekter ved jobben sin. Formålet med studien var å måle grad av samhandling, i tillegg til barnevernsansattes oppfatning av sin jobbsituasjon sammenlignet med ansatte i de andre tjenestene i Familiens Hus. Et annet formål var å undersøke hvordan organisatoriske faktorer, inkludert samhandling, predikerer utbrenthet, engasjement og jobbtilfredshet, med utgangspunkt i Jobbkrav - Ressurs modellen (Demerouti, Bakker, Nachreiner, & Schaufeli, 2001). Data ble samlet blant ansatte i seks Familiens Hus som var blitt etablerte under ett pilotprosjekt. Antall respondenter var 71, hvorav 20 var barnevernsansatte. Resultatene indikerte en generell positiv oppfatning av samhandling i Familiens Hus. Sammenlignet med to tidligere undersøkelser i Norge var samhandling vurdert noe høyere enn i tradisjonelt organiserte helse- og omsorgstjenester. I motsetning til forventet, viste barnevernsansatte en høyere jobbtilfredshet og lavere grad av kynisme enn andre yrkesgrupper i Familiens Hus. Analysen viste at jobbkrav og jobbressurser ble funnet til å predikere signifikante andeler av utmattelse og jobbtilfredshet. Et uventet funn var at lederskapstilfredshet var positivt assosiert med utmattelse. Samhandling ble imidlertid ikke funnet til å predikere utbrenthet, engasjement eller jobbtilfredshet.

Nøkkelord: Familiens Hus, tverrfaglig samarbeid, samhandling, utbrenthet, engasjement, jobbtilfredshet