Abstract
Background: The purpose of this study was to elucidate the stages of nurse burnout in hospitals (their states of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization) as well as factors related to the nurses personal characteristics and coping behaviors in order to obtain suggestions for stress and health management strategies that nurses themselves can employ. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study using anonymous self-administered questionnaires. The subjects were nurses employed at public hospitals with 500 beds in 3 cities in Hokkaido, Japan. The questionnaire items for burnout were those included on the Japanese Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), which are designed to ascertain the subjects’ emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and sense of personal accomplishment. In addition, we used 11 items related to physical and mental stress responses on the Stress Coping Inventory and the Brief Job Stress Questionnaire to determine factors such as the nurses’ basic attributes, whether or not they worked night shifts, and their overtime hours, etc. Results: We received responses from 1461 hospital nurses. Those whose scores for both emotional exhaustion and depersonalization were the mean or above were 40.2% of those in their twenties, 35.8% of those in their thirties, and 26.8% of those in their forties or older. The results of logistic regression analysis indicated that among those in the group that scored high for both emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, the influential factors were stress score (odds ratio 1.889), twenties age group (odds ratio 1.982), thirties age group (odds ratio 1.720), coping behavior: avoidance-focused behaviors (odds ratio 1.140), and engaged in childcare (odds ratio 0.487). Similarly, when looked at by age group, being in the twenties age group and having a spouse were influential factors (odds ratio 3.114 - 4.171). Conclusion: The results of this study elucidated the fact that for hospital nurses, the burnout stage, age, state of physical and mental stress response, and coping behavior can be effectively used as predictive indices.
Highlights
The job separation rate for Japanese nurses is on a declining trend, in general it hovers around 11% and is 7.5% for new nurses [1]
Analysis of the data by age group indicated that in the Emotion/Depersonalization Group 40.2% were in their twenties, 35.8% were in their thirties, and 26.8% were in their forties
In comparison to the results of the survey of nurses at hospitals with at least 800 beds conducted by Ogata et al [13], the burnout scores for the subjects in the present study indicated that sense of personal accomplishment was higher while emotional exhaustion and depersonalization were the same
Summary
The job separation rate for Japanese nurses is on a declining trend, in general it hovers around 11% and is 7.5% for new nurses [1]. Previous studies have reported that the causes for job separation among nurses include the burden of the responsibilities of the job, the number of night shifts and the length of the overtime, overwork, and other factors related to the work environment, as well as personal factors such as age and childcare [3] Those in their twenties and thirties who are at the stage during which they are building their careers as nurses are at the age when they are experiencing major life events such as marriage and childbirth that make it difficult to continue working. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the stages of nurse burnout in hospitals (their states of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization) as well as factors related to the nurses personal characteristics and coping behaviors in order to obtain suggestions for stress and health management strategies that nurses themselves can employ.
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