Overview
The advancement of the nursing profession presupposes broadening the scope of evidence pertaining to problem-solving. The past two decades have witnessed a widening body of research on nurses’ burnout, its causes, as well as outcomes for both the profession in general and patients in particular. Initially, the term burnout was introduced by Freudenberger back in 1974 after the observed decline in motivation and lowering commitment among volunteers at a mental health clinic (Dall’Ora et al., 2020). Today, the phenomenon is used frequently to indicate a state of emotional and physical exhaustion that nurses experience due to work-related stressors (Dall’Ora et al., 2020). Nurses’ burnout presents a challenge for the profession because as more nurses get burned out, the more likely they are to leave their jobs or become highly ineffective in their positions. As a result, the performance of hospitals and other healthcare facilities decreases in the long run. It is important to develop a viable intervention strategy that could allow for reducing burnout among professionals and enhance the environment in which they work, which is conducive to productivity and better engagement.
Key Concepts
- Nurse burnout or staff burnout or nurse disengagement or nurse exhaustion or nurse moral distress.
- Intervention to reduce burnout through personnel training or program to reduce burnout among nurses through establishing a favorable workplace environment.
Discussion of Relevant Sources
Research regarding nurse burnout is expansive and considers a variety of contexts. Dall’Ora et al. (2020) conducted a quantitative systematic review that detected such predictors of burnout as inadequate staffing levels, shifts that last more than twelve hours, the lack of schedule flexibility, time-related pressures, low autonomy, and negative team relationships. The article is important because it shows consistent adverse job characteristics linked to burnout in the nursing profession. In their quantitative cross-sectional survey, Konstantinou et al. (2018) identified that role conflict, workload and training satisfaction, satisfaction with pay, and family issues contributed to burnout. Scholars suggest that individual and organizational interventions are necessary to prevent burnout. Profit et al. (2021) used a randomized control trial to test the effect of the “WISER” intervention, which is web-based and delivered to providers through a mobile program. The focus on positive outcomes showed to improve the well-being of healthcare workers significantly. Dunne et al.’s (2019) quantitative study found that attention-based training programs significantly improved nurses’ emotional well-being, which led to reduced burnout and lowered emotional exhaustion. The study shows that attention to the wellness of personnel could reduce their burnout.
Hierarchy of Evidence
When categorizing the sources used for the research of the nursing issue, one should establish the hierarchy of evidence generated by the reviewed studies. In particular, a theoretical review carried out by Dall’Ora et al. (2020) means that the evidence was gathered from many other meta-analyses of RCTs and EBP clinical practice guidelines, ranking the study level I. The study carried out by Profit et al. (2021) belongs to level II due to the evidence obtained as the results of a controlled trial with randomization. Dunne et al.’s (2019) study suggests that evidence was obtained without randomization from a large sample, making it level-III evidence. Konstantinou et al. (2018) is a cross-sectional study that involved nurses participating in the research; although well-designed, it was a cohort study, making it level IV. Such a hierarchical categorization of evidence allows for systematizing the findings and exploring the issue in-depth.
References
Dall’Ora, C., Ball, J., Reinius, M., & Griffiths, P. (2020). Burnout in nursing: A theoretical review. Human Resources for Health, 18(1), 41.
Dunne, P., Lynch, J., Prihodova, L., O’Leary, C., Ghoreyshi, A., Basdeo, S. A., Cox, D. J., Breen, R., Sheikhi, A., Carroll, A., Walsh, C., McMahon, G., White, B. (2019). Burnout in the emergency department: Randomized controlled trial of an attention-based training program: Author links open overlay panel. Journal of Integrative Medicine, 17(3), 173-180.
Konstantinou, A. K., Bonotis, K., Sokratous, M., Siokas, V., & Dardiotis, E. (2018). Burnout evaluation and potential predictors in a greek cohort of mental health nurses. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, 32(3), 449–456.
Profit, J., Adair, K. C., Cui, X., Mitchell, B., Brandon, D., Tawfik, D. S., Rigdon, J., Gould, J. B., Lee, H. C., Timpson, W. L., McCaffrey, M. J., Davis, A. S., Pammi, M., Matthews, M., Stark, A. R., Papile, L. A., Thomas, E., Cotten. M., Khan, A., & Sexton, J. B. (2021). Randomized controlled trial of the “WISER” intervention to reduce healthcare worker burnout. Journal of Perinatology, 41, 2225-2234.