Analysis of the Risk and Protective Roles of Work-Related and Individual Variables in Burnout Syndrome in Nurses

Abstract

Aims: Burnout syndrome is a phenomenon that is becoming ever more widespread, especially in workers such as nurses who have heavy workloads and time pressures. The progression of burnout syndrome has been shown to be related to both individual and work-related variables. The objective of this study is to examine the risk and protective roles played by work-related and personal variables, both sociodemographic and psychological, in the development of burnout in nurses. Method: The sample was composed of 1236 nurses aged between 21 and 57 years, with a mean age of 31.50 years (SD = 6.18). Women accounted for 84.5% (n = 1044), and the remaining 15.5% (n = 192) were men. Exploratory tests were performed to understand the relationships between burnout and other variables, and a binary logistic regression was conducted to understand the roles of these variables in the incidence of this syndrome. Lastly, a regression tree was constructed. Results: The results show that the sociodemographic variables examined are not related to the level of burnout in nurses. However, certain work-related variables, such as spending more time with colleagues and patients and reporting good-quality relationships, exhibit a negative relationship with the occurrence of burnout. Of the psychological variables, the stress factors conflict-social acceptance and irritability-tension-fatigue, as well as informative communication, are shown to be risk factors for the appearance of burnout in nurses. In contrast, the communication skills factor, empathy, and energy-joy exert a protective function. Conclusion: Identifying the variables that influence the occurrence of burnout syndrome and understanding the manner in which they exert their influence are key elements in the development of effective prevention and intervention of burnout in nursing.

Psychological Capital Protects Social Workers from Burnout and Secondary Traumatic Stress

“…Several studies have been focusing on the resources that could counteract the adverse effects of emotionally demanding professions, like social work [35][36][37]. The results showed that personal resources are essential in equipping professionals to handle their job demands properly and in protecting their well-being [36][37][38]. As such, personal resources have a significant role in enabling social workers to cope with their professional demands.…”

“…Resilience represents the individuals' capacity to recover after adverse events. To accommodate adaptation to such changes and further achieve high performance, resilient individuals will entail a combination of flexibility, acceptance of reality, and perception of life as meaningful [38]. Resilient social workers will prevail through difficult situations (like the failure of an intervention, stressful job demands, or the interaction with a person that experienced traumatic stress) and will continue to perform at a high level in the tasks that follow the event.…”

Nurse Practitioners’ Work Values and Their Conflict Management Approaches in a Stressful Workplace: A Taiwan Study

“…The twenty-first century has seen an increasingly globalized world economy, and greater emphasis has been given to cultural diversity in the workforces and the workforce diversity's impact on conflict management practices in the global context [1][2][3][4][5]. The highly competitive and often stressful workplace has posed an unsustainable and public health problem for health care professionals [4,6], which consequently makes it crucial to look for more effective conflict management in the workplace.…”

“…Considering that a lot of conflict management theories have been developed in the West, and thus do not always consider the differences in culture and values in different contexts [7], a better knowledge of conflict management practices in a stressful work context in a different cultural context is greatly needed in order to maintain competitiveness in the world market [3,4,6].…”

“…Nurse practitioners have been reported to experience excessive conflicts due to several factors including lack of a clear definition of their responsibilities and authority, excessive workload, and role confusion [2,10]. When not effectively resolved, conflicts between nurse practitioners may impair both professional and interpersonal relationships among peers and adversely affect the functioning of health organizations [6]. It is thus equally important to explore how nurse practitioners manage their conflict in a stressful workplace in order to help build more supportive and harmonious organizational environments to promote employees' well-being and positive relationships among colleagues, which is of major importance for fostering healthy and more sustainable organizations, wherein people can live in harmony with effective conflict management.…”