Factors Influencing Nurse Burnout and Recommendations

Abstract

Background: Identifying nurse burnout to be of significance, as it directly impacts work ethic, patient satisfaction, safety and best practice. Nurses are more susceptible to fatigue and burnout, due to the fact of working in highly stressful environments and caring for people in their most vulnerable state. It is imperative to pinpoint and alleviate potential aspects that can lead to nurse burnout.

Research Hypothesis: Educating nurses on recognizing factors influencing nurse burnout and offering effective interventions to combat stress, will lead to better coping and adaptation skills; hence, decreasing the level of nurse fatigue and burnout. Assisting nurses to be cognizant of the symptoms of stress and nurse burnout will lead to the development of positive adaptive mechanisms. However, nurses without this recognition, tend to develop maladaptive psychological skills.

Research Methodology: The quality improvement project gathered data on factors influencing burnout via Maslach Burnout Inventory Tool (MBI). MBI is the most commonly used instrument in measuring burnout, by capturing three subscales of burnout: emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalization (DP) and personal accomplishment (PA).

Results: From a sample of 31 graduate nursing (employed) students, MBI survey was administered via survey monkey. Gathered data (n=31), via descriptive statistics and standard deviation, represented the extent of deviation for the nursing population as a whole. The quality improvement study revealed the standard deviation (SD) for emotional exhaustion, a low SD of 0.3; indicating that data points appear to be closer to the mean (expected value) of the emotional exhaustion data set. Additionally, depersonalization data showed SD values that were widely spread; however, yielding a low SD of 0.42 from the mean on depersonalization. Lastly, higher scores derived from Maslach’s Burnout Inventory tool suggests increased levels of personal accomplishment. Thus, data set revealed lower levels of depersonalization in regards to sample size.  Moreover, Pearson correlation coefficient (Pearson r) identified a positive correlation between independent variable of stress levels and factors influencing nurse burnout, with combined teaching of ways to combat stress in the workplace. Effectiveness of this was reported by ninety-eight percent (98%) of participants.

Significance: This study maintains that limited emotional exhaustion, a strong sense of identity and achieving personal accomplishments minimizes burn out.