Bullying and burnout in critical care nurses: A cross-sectional descriptive study

Employee bullying and burnout are two crucial, prevalent and challenging concepts that adversely affect organizational staff behaviours. Also, adverse patient care is associated with nurse bullying and burnout.

This study aimed to assess the incidence and association between workplace bullying and occupational burnout among nurses in critical care units in Iran.

A cross-sectional descriptive study.

The subjects were 184 nurses from critical care units in 6 teaching hospitals in Iran. Three questionnaires were distributed among the study population; (a) demographic characteristics questionnaire, (b) Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and (c) bullying at Workplace Questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were used to present the workplace bullying and occupational burnout status among nurses. Linear and logistic regression analyses were conducted to estimate the relationship between workplace bullying with MBI and nurses' demographic characteristics, respectively.

62% of the nurses had moderate emotional exhaustion, 59.8% had moderate depersonalization and 46.2% had a moderate individual achievement. 75.5% faced workplace bullying. There was a positive and significant association between bullying scores and burnout in total (Pearson's r = 0.598, p < 0.001). Linear regression test showed a positive and significant relationship between bullying with MBI dimensions (R = 0.613, p < 0.001) for emotional exhaustion, (R = 0.679, p < 0.001) for depersonalization and (R = -0.417, p < 0.001) for individual achievement.

Among Iranian nurses, bullying is a prominent and substantial issue that significantly correlates with their negative performance by enhancing job burnout.

It is suggested that some measures are adopted to avoid workplace bullying and to reduce occupational burnout for nurses. Managers should create an environment that encourages nurses to voice their concerns - informing nurses about their rights and creating a positive atmosphere in the hospital.