How well mental health workers are motivated: A case study from Croatia

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Like the other medical professions, mental health workers need appropriate motivation for effective treatment work. This study aims to determine the motivators and assess working conditions of mental health workers and how they differ from the motivators and working conditions of other health workers on the example of one of the largest hospital institutions in Croatia – University Hospital Centre Zagreb. The study chose a survey method and distributed a questionnaire among 124 Zagreb University Hospital Centre health workers. The sample covers about 16% of the entire medical staff of the observed departments (psychiatry, emergency, microbiology, gynecology, anesthesiology, COVID-19 unit, and orthopedic surgery). The ANOVA method was used to detect differences in data groups. The results show that Croatian mental health workers are mainly motivated extrinsically. However, compared to other medical professions, e.g., gynecologists, orthopedists, or anesthesiologists, they are upper-middle motivated and leaders in several motivators. Observed Croatian mental health workers are more satisfied with their patient interactions than their colleagues. Female mental health workers are more motivated but less satisfied with the working conditions than males. The study showed that even in one medical institution, there are significant differences in the needs of representatives of different professions. The paper concludes that mental health workers have different motivations, which can be satisfied by creating appropriate working conditions.

Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the COST Action CA19113 «The European Researchers’ Network Working on Second Victims» (ERNST) for short-term scientific mission grant and supporting this study; staff of University Hospital Centre Zagreb for participating in the survey; and the Hauge School of Management of the NLA University College (Kristiansand, Norway) for supporting this publication.

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    • Figure 1. Significant differences between responses of hospital departments (professions) on motivation
    • Figure 2. Significant differences between responses of hospital departments (professions) on work conditions
    • Figure 3. Significant differences between responses of gender groups on work conditions and motivation among all the observed medical professions
    • Figure 4. Significant differences between responses of gender groups on work conditions and motivation among mental health workers
    • Table A1. Medical staff questionnaire on motivation and working conditions
    • Conceptualization
      Anatoliy Goncharuk, Bojana Knezevic
    • Data curation
      Anatoliy Goncharuk, Bojana Knezevic
    • Formal Analysis
      Anatoliy Goncharuk
    • Funding acquisition
      Anatoliy Goncharuk
    • Investigation
      Anatoliy Goncharuk, Bojana Knezevic, Darko Marcinko
    • Methodology
      Anatoliy Goncharuk, Bojana Knezevic, Darko Marcinko
    • Resources
      Anatoliy Goncharuk, Bojana Knezevic, Darko Marcinko
    • Visualization
      Anatoliy Goncharuk
    • Writing – original draft
      Anatoliy Goncharuk
    • Writing – review & editing
      Anatoliy Goncharuk, Bojana Knezevic, Darko Marcinko