Burnout in Critical Care Nurses

Burnout syndrome is a contested diagnosis with wide ranging effects on critical care nurses, patients and families, and health care organizations. Multiple evaluation tools exist, and the core components of the theoretic burnout tools are vague and ambiguous and overlap legitimate mental health diseases, such as depression. Applied therapeutic interventions support decreased perceived burnout and staff turnover and improved overall well-being of nurses. Research postulates that decreased levels of burnout are associated with improved quality of patient care, communication, and trust, combined with decreases in patient morbidity and mortality, and ultimately, a decrease in the overall financial cost of care.