Sharps injuries and job burnout: a cross-sectional study among nurses in China

The present study investigated the relationship between sharps injuries and job burnout in nurses. Sharps injury questionnaires and the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) questionnaires were used to investigate and analyze job burnout among 468 nurses, of which 458 effective questionnaires were collected, for a response rate of 97.86%. A total of 292 nurses had at least one sharps injury (63.76% of the 458 nurses). The dimension scores were higher for injured nurses compared with non-injured nurses. The difference between the dimensions of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization for nurses with sharps injuries was statistically significant (P < 0.05). A rank correlation analysis showed that these two dimensions had a positive correlation with sharps injuries (r = 0.69-0.78). The prevalence of sharps injuries in nursing is associated with depersonalization, as measured by the MBI. Nursing administrators should pay more attention to clinically burned-out nurses, and provide more opportunity to nurses for training and education to reduce the prevalence of sharps injuries.