Comparative Analysis of Burnout among Medical and Psychiatric Social Workers in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract

Background. Medical and psychiatric social workers carry the psychosocial work of the clinical team, including counselling, discharge planning, welfare linkage, and rehabilitation. Heavy caseloads and emotional labour place them at risk of burnout, yet comparative data on the two cadres in India are scarce.Objective. To assess and compare burnout between medical social workers (MSWs) and psychiatric social workers (PSWs) in a government tertiary care setting in North India.Methods. A hospital-based cross-sectional survey enrolled 100 social workers (50 MSWs, 50 PSWs) by purposive sampling. Burnout was measured with the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI), covering personal, work-related, and client-related domains. Continuous variables were compared using the independent samples t-test and categorical variables using the chi-square or Fisher's exact test. A two-tailed p < .05 was treated as significant.Results. PSWs scored higher than MSWs on all three CBI domains: personal burnout (26.16 ± 1.55 vs 24.74 ± 3.10; mean difference 1.42, 95% CI 0.45 to 2.39; p = .005), work-related burnout (27.40 ± 1.56 vs 26.26 ± 2.57; mean difference 1.14, 95% CI 0.30 to 1.98; p = .009), and client-related burnout (27.72 ± 1.75 vs 26.42 ± 3.51; mean difference 1.30, 95% CI 0.20 to 2.40; p = .021). Effect sizes were moderate (Cohen's d = 0.47 to 0.58). The groups also differed in marital status, religion, education, employment type, domicile, and posting. Conclusion. PSWs reported greater burnout than MSWs across all CBI domains, and the null hypothesis was rejected. Because the cadres differ on several background variables, the difference is associational rather than role-specific. Support should be directed toward psychiatric and contractual staff, alongside action on the structural conditions linked to higher burnout.