{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,23]],"date-time":"2026-09-23T07:02:00Z","timestamp":1790146920775,"version":"4.0.1"},"reference-count":37,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,23]],"date-time":"2026-09-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1790121600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Public Health"],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Early-career doctoral healthcare professionals combine clinical responsibilities with academic-performance expectations, yet heterogeneity in their burnout and work-engagement patterns and their associations with career resources and psychological distress is poorly characterized.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>We conducted a cross-sectional survey of 386 doctoral healthcare professionals within 3 years of recruitment in Sichuan, China. Burnout dimensions, work engagement, and four career-resource domains were assessed. Anxiety and depressive symptoms were measured using the two-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-2) and the two-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-2), respectively. We conducted latent profile analysis using a Gaussian mixture model with a diagonal covariance structure to identify distinct burnout\u2013engagement profiles. Multinomial regression examined profile correlates, robust linear regression compared symptom scores, and a regularized partial-correlation network described conditional associations.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Positive anxiety and depression screens occurred in 79 (20.47%) and 51 (13.21%) participants. A three-profile solution was retained: resilient-engaged (\n                      <jats:italic>n<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u202f=\u202f65), moderate (\n                      <jats:italic>n<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u202f=\u202f156), and high-strain (\n                      <jats:italic>n<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u202f=\u202f165; entropy\u202f=\u202f0.92; mean posterior probability\u202f=\u202f0.97). Although information criteria decreased through six classes, higher-class solutions accumulated boundary variances or produced classes below 5% under constrained variance. Compared with the resilient-engaged profile, each standard-deviation increase in career-development planning was associated with lower odds of moderate (odds ratio [OR]\u202f=\u202f0.26, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.13\u20130.52) and high-strain membership (OR\u202f=\u202f0.16, 95% CI 0.07\u20130.36). After adjustment, moderate and high-strain profiles had higher GAD-2 scores by 0.81 and 1.65 points and higher PHQ-2 scores by 0.52 and 1.35 points, respectively. Four-class, posterior-probability, and low-loading-item sensitivity analyses preserved the career-planning association and symptom gradient. Emotional exhaustion was the highest-strength node in 95.90% of bootstrap samples, but strength and bridge-expected-influence stability were moderate (CS\u202f=\u202f0.40), and the exact bridge ranking remained scoring-sensitive.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Burnout\u2013engagement profiles followed a severity gradient, with the high-strain profile comprising 42.75% of the sample and showing the greatest psychological distress. Career planning was the most consistent inverse profile correlate, but longitudinal studies are needed before causal or intervention claims can be made.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2026.1953465","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,23]],"date-time":"2026-09-23T06:21:04Z","timestamp":1790144464000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Burnout and work-engagement profiles, career resources, and psychological distress among early-career doctoral healthcare professionals: a cross-sectional latent profile and network analysis"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Shaobo","family":"Liu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Human Resources Department, Sichuan Provincial People\u2019s Hospital, School of Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China","place":["Chengdu, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jing","family":"He","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Nursing, Sichuan Provincial People\u2019s Hospital, School of Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China","place":["Chengdu, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"68","DOI":"10.1186\/s12960-024-00940-x","article-title":"Global strategy on human resources for health: workforce 2030-a five-year check-in","volume":"22","author":"McIsaac","year":"2024","journal-title":"Hum Resour Health"},{"key":"ref2","volume-title":"Global strategy on human resources for health: Workforce 2030","year":"2016"},{"key":"ref3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"763","DOI":"10.1080\/0142159x.2025.2469604","article-title":"Health worker education, employment and equity: aligning markets and strategies","volume":"47","author":"Campbell","year":"2025","journal-title":"Med Teach"},{"key":"ref4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2067","DOI":"10.1001\/jama.2024.6216","article-title":"To fix burnout, new initiatives go beyond worker resilience and put onus on health systems","volume":"331","author":"Bock","year":"2024","journal-title":"JAMA"},{"key":"ref5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"101463","DOI":"10.1016\/j.lanepe.2025.101463","article-title":"Futureproofing the healthcare workforce in Europe: understanding and addressing psychological distress and occupational outcomes","volume":"57","author":"Almeida-Meza","year":"2025","journal-title":"Lancet Reg Health Eur"},{"key":"ref6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1530287","DOI":"10.3389\/fmed.2025.1530287","article-title":"Strategies to support the mental health and well-being of health and care workforce: a rapid review of reviews","volume":"12","author":"Frias","year":"2025","journal-title":"Front Med (Lausanne)"},{"key":"ref7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1920","DOI":"10.1007\/s11606-023-08153-z","article-title":"The Association of Work Overload with burnout and intent to leave the job across the healthcare workforce during COVID-19","volume":"38","author":"Rotenstein","year":"2023","journal-title":"J Gen Intern Med"},{"key":"ref8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"522","DOI":"10.1186\/s12967-025-06532-0","article-title":"Chinese physician-scientists: dual-role professionals emerging amid institutional constraints","volume":"23","author":"Li","year":"2025","journal-title":"J Transl Med"},{"key":"ref9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"513","DOI":"10.1037\/\/0003-066x.44.3.513","article-title":"Conservation of resources. 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