Burnout of Nurses in Nursing Homes: To What Extent Age, Education, Length of Service and Length of Work Experience at the Current Workplace Affect the Level of Professional Burnout

Abstract

We are witnessing very demanding and stressful times in which we live, and an occupation that is particularly exposed to stress and different working conditions is the job of a nurse. Exposing themselves to everyday challenges and stressful situations, nurses reach a stage of great emotional and physical exhaustion, lethargy, dissatisfaction, and poorer work achievements, which we know as burnout. The aim of this paper was to determine whether there is and to what extent professional burnout is present in nurses and technicians working in nursing homes across Slovenia and Croatia. The paper is answering the questions of the extent of the burnout influenced by individual characteristics (age, education, years of service and work experience at the current workplace). The study involved a validated questionnaire “The Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI)” to measure professional burnout. Surveying of the nurses was conducted online at their home institutions. The results show that all respondents have a medium or high level of professional burnout, while no one has a low level or shows no signs of burnout. In terms of age, the group from 55-65 years of age had the highest relative level of burnout in the age group category. With regard to education, the highest burnout was measured in registered nurses.