Essay On Rehabilitation Counselors

The state rehabilitation agency remains one of the largest places of employment for rehabilitation counselors. Vocational rehabilitation counselors are expected to serve persons with disabilities effectively by retaining, maintaining, or obtaining jobs or careers that are compatible with the consumers’ interests and abilities. Independent living rehabilitation counselors working with consumers are expected to provide services that will allow them to become more independent. Job burnout and job dissatisfaction are two factors that rehabilitation counselors experience while on the job. Previous research has shown that employees in the helping profession tend to experience a tremendous amount of burnout and job dissatisfaction. Counselors work in a distinctive work environment that involves demanding roles which can lead them experiencing burnout (Brown & Wallace, 2004). State rehabilitation agencies must ensure that job satisfaction remains high in order to retain counselors (Andrew, Faubion, & Palmer, 2002). One important factor that can help retain counselors in state rehabilitation agencies is by increasing extrinsic

Potential participants were recruited from several states using a state employee listing, a university list of on-line students currently enrolled in a rehabilitation counseling master’s degree program, and by word-of-mouth. Participants completed an on-line survey developed for this study consisting of demographic questions and questions concerning their experience as a current rehabilitation counselor. Participants were informed that their participation was voluntary and was free to discontinue their participation without prejudice. Overall, 143 counselors responded to the invite. A total of 39 surveys were unusable because of partial responses or abandoned surveys. The final number of 104 participants was usable