Relationship between occupational stress, uncertain endurance and job burnout of pre-hospital emergency nurses

Abstract

Objective To investigate the correlation between occupational stress, uncertain endurance and job burnout of pre-hospital emergency nurses. Methods A total of 380 pre-hospital emergency nurses were recruited by stratified cluster sampling method.The occupational burnout scale (MBI) including emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalization (D) and diminished personal accomplishment (PA), the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale (IUS), the Nursing Stressor Scale (NSS) including stresses associated with nurse expectations (NSS1), with family (NSS2), with interpersonal relationship (NSS3), with nature of work (NSS4), with patient (NSS5) and with work load (NSS6) were applied for all subjects. Results The pre-hospital emergency nurses who had worked less than 3 years got the higher EE score (33.58±4.34) and higher PA score (26.98±4.31) than those who had worked 3 to 10 year(22.33±4.05, 16.14±4.28, P<0.05) or longer than 10 years(21.50±4.36, 16.81±4.36, P<0.05). Nurses got higher EE score (33.82±4.28, 22.96±4.39, 21.04±4.62, P<0.05), and higher PA scores(27.02±4.21, 16.04±4.31, 16.01±4.30, P<0.05) than the nurse practitioner or above levels.People whose monthly income were below 0.3 million got higher PA scores than those whose monthly income were 0.3 million or more (26.75±4.24, 16.47±4.27, 17.11±4.34, P<0.05). People who got degrees of bachelor or above had PA scores which was more than people who got degrees under bachelor(26.33±4.36, 17.24±4.28, P<0.05). Regression analysis showed that the multiplication score between IUS and NSS1 had the interaction effect with EE and D scores(β=0.33, 0.33, P<0.05); the multiplication score between IUS and NSS5 had the interaction effect with EE and D scores (β=0.31, 0.30, P<0.05) and the multiplication score between IUS and NSS3 had the interaction effect with D scores(β=0.34, P<0.05). Conclusion The pre-hospital emergency nurses' job burnout varies according to their length of service, job title, educational level and salary, and is also influenced by the combination of occupational stress and uncertain endurance. Key words: Burnout; Occupational stress; Intolerance of uncertainty; Factor analysis; Ambulance nurses