The risk to nurses of developing burnout syndrome

In order to get information on the risk to nurses of developing burnout syndrome an interview was carried out with 69 nurses from a large hospital and 28 nurses from a small hospital. Particular attention was paid to the following questions in the questionnaire: Does burnout occur among nurses on a short-stay hospital ward? Is the risk of burnout associated with any particular field of medicine? Does the service as a nurse, hours on duty or rank have any significance? Does the size of the hospital have any influence? Are there any ways of preventing burnout? The questions were asked to establish the presence of a psychical, physical, social and emotional type in addition to factors from the MBI scale. The results showed that nurses risk developing burnout regardless of age, period of service, hours on duty, rank, or field of medicine. The nurse's personality is apparently of relevance but the determinant for burnout development is how different stressors affect the individual. Some methods are proposed whereby the nurses can better cope with the stressors. However, these methods are certainly insufficient and further research is important to define more clearly the principles by which the development of burnout syndrome can be prevented.