Preventing Nurse Burnout In New Graduates

Abstract

Nurses comprise most of the healthcare workforce, and addressing burnout among newly graduated nurses could help alleviate it. This DNP project aimed to prevent nurse burnout among newly graduated nurses through an educational program about nurse burnout and methods to decrease it. A survey design was used to test the relationship between job stress and burnout in newly employed nurses. A presentation was given to newly hired nurses during their orientation period. It defined nurse burnout and discussed methods to decrease or prevent burnout. Nineteen recently graduated nurses were included. Participants were asked to complete the Perceived Stress Scale and Burnout Self-Test surveys after the presentation and at 30-, 60-, and 90-days using Survey Monkey. An ANOVA table was used to compare the results. New graduates perceived no stress before employment. Thirty days after hire, their ability to handle stress decreased, while the probability of their burnout rate increased. Sixty days after working, new graduates’ stress marginally increased while their ability to handle stress did not change, indicating their likelihood of burnout did not change. Therefore, their potential for burnout did not increase because their ability to handle stress did not change. Finally, after ninety days of employment, the graduate’s responses declined, making that data insignificant. Helping new graduate nurses develop coping skills to deal with transitioning to practice and learning pre-emptive strategies to lessen the effect of burnout will aid them in mitigating their symptoms of burnout and help maintain a vital workforce.