The purpose of this study was to describe nurse burnout, job satisfaction, and intention to leave, and to explore the relationship of work environment to nurse outcomes in a sample of 9,698 nurses from 181 hospitals in China. Nurses reported moderate levels of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, and high levels of reduced personal accomplishment. Nearly one fifth of the nurses reported high levels of burnout on all three dimensions. Forty-five percent of the nurses were dissatisfied with their current job; these nurses were most dissatisfied with their salary. Five percent of nurses reported intention to leave. Nurses reporting mixed and good work environments were less likely to report high burnout, job dissatisfaction, and intention to leave compared with those in poor work environments. The results suggest that high burnout and low job satisfaction are prominent problems for Chinese nurses, and improving work environment might be an effective strategy for better nurse outcomes in Chinese hospitals.

We recommend that the nurse-to-patient ratio on medical and surgical units in Chinese hospitals be increased to at least 0.5-0.6 so as to secure patient safety and the quality of health services.

Factors predicting fatigue in Chinese nurses were examined in a descriptive, correlational study. The participants were 581 nurses working in general hospitals in Chengdu City, China. The study instruments included the Occupational Fatigue Exhaustion Recovery Scale, the Job Content Questionnaire, the Exposure to Hazards in Hospital Work Environments Scale, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, the Job Dissatisfaction Scale, the Beck Anxiety Inventory, and the Beck Depression Inventory. The data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation, F statistics, and multiple regression. The findings revealed that 61.7% of the variance in chronic fatigue and 54.9% of the variance in acute fatigue were explained by the independent variables. Intershift recovery was the most important variable in the explanation of acute fatigue, while acute fatigue was the most important variable in the explanation of chronic fatigue. Different intervention strategies should be implemented regarding the different influencing factors of acute and chronic fatigue.

Acute and chronic fatigue is affected by different factors and nurse managers should generate specific interventions to decrease them.

Background: The Occupational Fatigue Exhaustion/Recovery Scale (OFER) was designed to assess occupational fatigue in nurses. Although the original English version of this instrument has shown high degrees of reliability and validity, a Chinese version of this scale has yet to be verified. Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the OFER in a population of Chinese nurses. Methods: The scale was translated using translation and back-translation. The validities and reliabilities were evaluated on 923 qualified participants using content validity index, concurrent validity, factorial validity, internal consistency reliability, and test–retest reliability. Results: The content validity index for the OFER was .92. The correlation coefficients between the scores of the OFER subscales and the criteria in this study (varying from −.498 to .705) verified that the OFER has acceptable concurrent validity. Principal component analysis and confirmatory factor analysis revealed that three factors correspond to the structure of the original instrument and that recovery mediates the relationship between acute and chronic fatigue. The Cronbach’s alpha for the chronic fatigue, acute fatigue, and intershift recovery subscales were .83, .85, and .86, respectively. Test–retest reliabilities with correlation coefficients from .61 to .78 were found in the three subscales. Conclusions/Implications for Practice: OFER is a reliable and valid instrument for assessing work-related fatigue in Chinese nurses. However, further improvement of the acute fatigue subscale is recommended. The OFER has the potential to elicit information that is useful for assessing fatigue in nurses in China. Furthermore, as it differentiates between acute and chronic fatigue, OFER may be an effective tool for guiding the development and implementation of various, related intervention measures.

Two new compounds, alternanthin B (1) and N-trans-feruloyl-3,5-dimethoxytyramine (2), along with four known compounds (3-6) were isolated from the aerial parts of Alternanthera philoxeroides. Their structures were elucidated on the basis of spectroscopic methods. The antitumor activity of the isolated compounds was also evaluated.

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