Nurses have to work in the concerned wards in the hospitals with patients who have both serious and manageable conditions. This is associated with myriad of problems as they have to take care of the patient as well as deal with the over protective and problematic relatives of the patients in majority of cases and also handle the documentation of the hospital records. This taxing job predisposes the nurses to a variety of stress. This makes them more susceptible for burnout. Our study aimed at estimating the burnout prevalence in nurses working in a tertiary care hospital; therefore, we intended to undertake a survey to find out whether burnout existed.
Methods
A descriptive cross sectional study was conducted in 50 nurses working in a tertiary care hospital of Nashik. The prevalence of burnout among nurses working in a tertiary care hospital of Nashik was found out using a validated self-administered questionnaire.
Results
Data was collected using self administered questionnaire, the Burnout questionnaire. The data was sorted and analyzed in SPSS version 16. According to screening done by Burnout questionnaire, 78% nurses showed burnout.
Conclusion
A significant fraction of nurses working in a tertiary care hospital of Nashik suffer from burnout. Strategies should be designed to prevent occurrence of burnout among nurses.
Keywords: Burnout, Prevalence.
Burnout is defined as a feeling of physical and emotional exhaustion, due to stress from working with people under difficult or demanding conditions. [1]Burnout is often characterized by fatigue that happens for a long time, low threshold for anger and susceptibility to allergic rhinitis, headache, fever etc. Burnout affects work at almost all the work stations/places in all the professions. The causes of burnout include work that excess than is recommended for an individual, being physically/mentally unfit for a particular job, etc. It is believed to be produced by stress that is chronic in nature which results in symptoms of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and reduced productivity at work.Emotional exhaustion refers to lacunae in motivation at work which may be due to personal or professional conflicts and excessive workload. Depersonalization is the one in which there is a feeling of emotional distance from ones work. Reduced productivity at work refers to not being able to perform to a level that is standardized or expected for a given profession. Burnout is thought of as a hazard in the medical field too. Each and every individual be it physicians or nurses are vulnerable throughout as an occupational hazard right from their training to practice; but nurses have shown to have a high prevalence of burnout. [2]
Nurses play a critical role in the functioning of any hospital healthcare system effectively. Burnout in nurses is an important area of great concern in area of healthcare. Nurses burnout has negative impact on quality care, staff functioning and overall coordination in the functioning of the hospital healthcare system. If left unattended the consequences of Burnout will lead to poor performance at work, compromised patient care and questionable safety of the patient.[2]
As a consequence of burnout many nurses work with disinterest or at times leave their jobs at a particular place to find a new one. [3]This has led to shortage of dedicated and dependable nurses. There is a reported incidence of burnout being 70% in nurses which is substantially high.[4]
Nurses not only have challenging work to do but have it in combination with long work duration and little acknowledgement;There are innumerable stressors which contribute to the burnout; of which long work hours and excessive workload than is manageable are the most critical ones.An American psychologist, named Herbert Freudenberger, used the term “burnout” around the 1970’s which described the results of excessive stress and high standards witnessed by people working in hospitals.
Study design: Cross sectional study
Study setting: Tertiary care hospital of Nashik
Duration of study: 6 months
Sample size: 50
Sampling technique: convenient sampling technique
This was a descriptive cross sectional study conducted in a Tertiary care hospital of Nashik.
The study which was done included 50 nurses. Convenient sampling method was used. Nurses from all the wards participated in the study. In this cross sectional study,50 nurses were screened for ‘Burnout’ using the ‘Burnout questionnaire’ which was subjective and filled in by the Nurses.
All participants completed the self reported screening package which included the Burnout questionnaire. English version of the questionnaire was used. Written consent form was filled in from all participants.
The Burnout questionnaire is a self-administered validity tested questionnaire which is used in quantification of physical stress at work. It consists of 28 questions out of which scoring is done on a 5 point likert scale from never to always. The total score ranges from 28 to 140.
The data was sorted and analyzed in SPSS version 16.Means ± standard deviations were taken into consideration for quantitative variable in our study.
| Presence of burnout | Number |
| Nurses with burnout | 39 |
| Nurses without burnout | 11 |
| Total | 50 |
Out of 50 nurses, all returned the complete questionnaires giving a response rate of 100%. 50 subjects (nurses) participated in the study out of which; 39(78%) showed burnout. Out of 39; 22(56.4%) showed high score which meant excessive burnout, 10(25.6%) showed moderate burnout while 7(17.9%) showed mild burnout. So the lowest level of burnout that was found was 51 while the highest was 120.
In the present study, we assessed the prevalence of burnout among nurses working in tertiary care hospital of Nashik. To date, this study is the first to examine the prevalence of burnout among nurses in tertiary care hospital. Based on the results of our study, prevalence of burnout was found out to be 78% out of which 22(56.4%) which meant excessive burnout, 10(25.6%) showed moderate burnout while 7(17.9%) showed mild burnout. So the lowest level of burnout that was found was 51 while the highest was 120.
The aim of our study was centered around examining the prevalence of burnout faced by nurses as a consequence of hospital work and giving as insight for the formation of preventive solutions for this malady. The literature that was reviewed showed consequences like mental and physical problems as lower self confidence, anxiety, feeling of hopelessness and depression. The review of literature also gave an insight upon burnout being a problem worldwide. The causes which were made out after the interview with nurses suggested working in shifts, workload and stressful working environment.These are all factors taken care of by the hospital management and were biased against the nurses who form the integral part of the hospital healthcare system.
Van Bogaert et al (2013) have shown the lack of autonomous decisions in the field have added to the burnout rates of nursing profession. Reviewed studies have focused on the alarming consequences of burnout as headaches, hypertension, musculoskeletal abnormalities etc. These are definitely contributing factors to lower quality of patient care.
A significant fraction of nurses experience burnout in a tertiary care hospital of Nashik. Strategies should be designed to prevent occurrence of burnout and its further consequences which if left unattended would undoubtedly hamper the availability of dependable medical services in future.
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The burnout definition- www.businessdictionary.com/definition/burn-out.html
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