Evaluating Burnout Among Graduate Nursing Students: A Quality ImprovemenHarvard Business Reviewt Project

Understanding the effects of burnout in the nursing profession will take years to fully realize. Evidence is emerging which reveals that as many as 18% of nurses leave the bedside within their first year of practice, many of whom cite the occupational phenomenon of burnout as a factor. This migration of nurses from the bedside into advanced practice prompts the need for peer and organizational support to mitigate burnout among nurses. This project aimed to evaluate the three domains of burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and decreased personal accomplishment) among advanced practice nursing students in an effort to keep new advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) in the workforce. Using simple random sampling, a cohort of 103 APRN students from Baylor University was surveyed using the Maslach Burnout Inventory Human Services Survey for Medical Personnel. Scores for each of the three burnout domains were analyzed for mean and standard deviation as well as using linear regression. Varying degrees of burnout were identified across demographics, with the highest scores belonging to inpatient medical nurses and emergency room nurses. Thirty percent of respondents scored poorly in the emotional exhaustion domain, regardless of the type of units in which they worked. These numbers were congruent with recent trends in data, which reveal burnout levels as high as 30%-50% in health care workers worldwide. This project highlights the urgent need for strategic interventions at the organizational level to diminish the migration of APRNs from the profession.