Human resource management, quality of patient care and burnout during the pandemic: A job demands-resources approach

Purpose: Based on the job-demands resources model, this study examines the potential of human resource management practices to simultaneously improve physicians’ burnout and quality of patient care during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design/Methodology/Approach: Drawing on a sample of 499 physicians working in specialised medical units, structural equation models through PLS-SEM was used to check the proposed hypotheses.

Findings: The results show that human resource management can reduce physicians’ burnout and increase quality of patient care by considering job demands and job resources as mediators. In addition, this study suggests that burnout and quality of patient care can be improved simultaneously.

Research limitations/implications: This research is focused on healthcare, which opens important opportunities to extend the proposed model in other public and private industries.

Practical implications: Managers need to understand that fostering well-being among employees is crucial for human resource management and impacts positively on employee performance.

Originality/value: This study offers a double mediation process whereby job demands and job resources are key underlying mechanisms through which human resource management practices reduce burnout and improve performance in a compatible way.