The Relationships Between Hardiness, Self-Perceived Problem Solving Effectiveness and Burnout Among Hospital Staff Nurses

Abstract

A descriptive correlational design was. used in this study to test the hypotheses that (a) hardiness would be negatively correlated with burnout, (b) hardiness would be positively correlated with self-perceived problem solving effectiveness and (c) self-perceived problem solving effectiveness would be negatively correlated with burnout. Sixty-seven hospital staff nurses returned usable data including Kobasa and Associates• Hardiness Measurement, Maslach and Jackson•s Maslach Burnout Inventory and Heppner and Petersen•s Problem Solving Inventory Instruments. Pearson correlations indicated significant relationships between hardiness and burnout; between hardiness and self-perceived problem solving_effectivenes?; and between self-perceived problem i solving effectiveness and burnout. Therefore, all three hypotheses were accepted. Findings suggest the need for replication of the present study to increase generalizability to the larger population of nurses. Longitudinal studies are also indicated to_examine any changes among the variables over time