Work related well-being in the UK physiotherapy workforce : Part I. Quantitative findings from the YOURvieWS cross-sectional e-survey

Objectives: To explore burnout, professional fulfilment, work related stress, well-being and working patterns within the physiotherapy workforce. Design: A cross-sectional, convenience, voluntary, open e-survey. Setting: Online. Participants: UK physiotherapy workforce, including physiotherapists, students, support workers across all workplace settings and across the UK. Intervention: Following development and pre-testing, the e-survey was widely advertised and ran from 08/03/2023 to 30/04/2023 via Bristol Online Survey. Main outcome measures: Stanford Professional Fulfilment Index (SPFI), a score for work related and private life related stress, work-life balance, WHO 5 well-being questionnaire and questions to capture working patterns, diversity and inclusivity questions and demographic data. Results: Following data cleaning, 666/764 (87%) female and 92/764 (12%)male respondents. SPFI: burnout prevalence was 49%(376/764). 436/564 respondents (57%) reported feeling stressed “often” or “very often” (past month). WHO 5 scores had a median of 45 (IQR: 30–60) indicating many have score ≤50 indicating poor wellbeing. 45%(340/764) respondents reported their work-life balance over the previous 2 weeks as unbalanced/very unbalanced. 57%(435/764) reported that they worked full time and 43%(329/764) part-time. 78%(598/764) reported having one physiotherapy role, 18%(139/764) reported having two roles, 3%(23/764) having four roles and 1%(4/764) having five roles and unpaid hours were raised as problematic. 54% (411/764) reported being absent from work/study in the last year and 10%(76/764) reported adjusted work/study. 9%(72/764) reported additional non-physiotherapy roles/jobs. Conclusions: This e-survey obtained snapshot views from self-selecting participants. The positive workforce developments being experienced within the physiotherapy profession are threatened by poor work-related well-being, including burnout and stress. Action is required. Contribution of the Paper: • Identifies important concerns, and urgent action needed, regarding work related well-being in the physiotherapy workforce. • Provides evidence for policy makers and to inform policy and strategic planning. • Profession specific strategies to measure and improve WRWB in the physiotherapy workforce should be implemented and monitored at national, local and departmental level.