Nursing Burnout

ABSTRACT

The study of nursing burnout is crucial because it impacts on nurses and their families, patient-care, and hospital employee benefit and disability expenses. Clinical research on bumout has been based on differing conceptual frameworks some emphasizing individual factors, and others emphasizing organizational and systemic factors, such as the interaction between individuals and characteristics of their work environment. Further, models differ to the extent that actual vs. perceived work demands determine risk for burnout. It is argued here that interactional models such as Cherniss (1980) that emphasize perceived demands of burnout provide a better “fit” to explain nursing burnout. Further, selected factors that may lead to burnout are described.

It is argued that a proactive systemic approach to intervention is likely to be the most effective in reducing the risk of burnout. Hospital organizational development should focus on enhancing motivation and the “value” nurses add to patient care by removing non-nursing tasks which are incongruent with their interests and training. Enhanced quality of work-life for nurses may reduce the incidence of this pervasive work-related dysfunction.