The Relationship Between Burnout, Interpersonal Commitment, Client Adherence, and Quality of Work Life Among Neurofeedback Practitioners

Abstract

This study identified neurofeedback (NFB) practitioner self-perceptions related to quality of work life. We also identified practitioner  self-perceptions of common clinician factors related to NFB. To guide this current study, we utilized our previous conceptual framework research
on practitioner perspectives of NFB (Larson, Ryan, & Baerentzen, 2010). One hundred forty-eight NFB practitioners completed online surveys gathering demographic information and ratings of practice behaviors and characteristics. For data set analyses, we utilized descriptive statistics, frequencies, means, standard deviations, ranges, Cronbach’s alpha
analysis, Pearson product–moment correlation analysis, and a regular simultaneous regression analysis. Our results indicated that 74% of the variance in quality of work life can be determined by variance in a significant multiple correlation of burnout, interpersonal skills commitment, and client adherence. We found monthly sessions correlated with financial gain or loss (FGL). We also found client adherence separately correlated with monthly sessions, NFB knowledge, NFB learning commitment, and NFB mentorship. For NFB practitioner
self-perceptions of common clinician factors, the most frequently endorsed practitioner traits in rank order were (a) ethical, (b) attentive, (c) empathic, (d) calm, (d) observant, (e) sense of humor, (f) analytical and confident (tied), (g) friendly and realistic expectations (tied), (h) optimistic, and (i) careful. NFB practitioner quality of work life appeared to be related to three straightforward components: reducing burnout, increasing commitment to enhancing interpersonal skills, and increasing client adherence. Practitioners providing mentoring, practitioners improving NFB knowledge and skills, and more monthly sessions are separately related to client adherence. Of interest, we found only the number of monthly sessions positively correlated with monthly FGL. We found a variety of perceived NFB common clinician factors adding to the complexity of understanding factors influencing NFB outcomes. Of interest, two (attentive and calm) of the top four practitioner
self-perceptions of common clinician factors are also important NFB client outcomes.