Drowning not waving: burnout and mental health nursing

Mental health nursing as one of the human services professions has frequently, been associated with stress and burnout. The three dimensions of burnout; emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and reduced personal accomplishment have major implications for the quality of the service that mental health nurses are capable of giving. Various studies have demonstrated mental health nurses suffer a high degree of burnout. Other studies have identified the stressors associated with mental health nursing that may be precursors to burnout. The Evaluation of the National Mental Health Strategy (1998) demonstrated that the Strategy was achieving many of its objectives. The objectives that have been achieved in service delivery have produced a work environment that has many of the identified stressors associated with burnout. Therefore, it is imperative that strategies are implemented that address the problem of stress and burnout in the current mental health system.