Burnout among staff providing residential dementia care can undermine workforce sustainability and care quality. Evidence from Hungarian long-term residential social care settings remains limited, particularly regarding the combined role of multidimensional job demands and coping-related resource constraints. A county-level cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted among nurses and caregivers working in residential social institutions providing dementia care in Hungary. Data collection took place between 1 June and 31 July 2024 across 77 institutions. The final sample included 1,254 participants (ordinal regression sample: 1,207). Caregiving difficulties (13 items) and dementia-specific symptom burden (12 items) were assessed on 5-point scales; internal consistency was evaluated using Cronbach’s alpha. Principal component analysis was used to develop components of caregiving difficulty. Burnout severity was operationalized as a 4-level ordinal variable outcome (0–3), derived from participants’ responses regarding their own and others’ burnout. Predictors were examined using Proportional Odds Ordinal Logistic Regression (POLR) and a multilevel Cumulative Link Mixed Model (CLMM) accounting for institutional clustering. Caregiving difficulties showed excellent reliability (α = 0.928) and yielded three components explaining 73.19% of variance. Symptom burden reliability was also excellent (α = 0.949). Any burnout-related signal (levels 1–3) was reported by 46.4% of participants, while higher severity (levels 2–3) accounted for 19.3%. In adjusted ordinal models, higher subjective workload was associated with increased burnout severity (OR ≈ 1.46–1.53 across models, p < 0.001), as was more frequent care-related burden (OR ≈ 1.21–1.31, p < 0.01). Coping constraints were strongly related to higher burnout severity: reporting “no possibility to cope” was associated with increased odds (OR ≈ 2.86–2.91, p < 0.01). Self-reported prior learning about burnout was strongly negatively associated with burnout severity (OR ≈ 0.06–0.08, p < 0.001). Rest/relax frequency was not a significant predictor (OR = 1.09, 95% CI 0.95–1.24; p = 0.212). In the studied county, the level of burnout among professionals was primarily related to job expectations and limited coping options, while self-reported prior learning about burnout emerged as a potential protective factor. Organisational strategies that reduce excessive demands and expand access to coping resources—supported by targeted training—may help mitigate burnout risk in this setting.
Kiss et al. (Mon,) studied this question.