A comparison between the degree of burnout experienced by intensive care nurses and general duty staff nurses

Abstract

The degree of burnout· experienced by intensive_· care unit nurses . -and the degree. of burnoll:t ·experienced by genera-l duty 'staff nurses were compared in this study. .In ·addition, the. degree. of burnout exper·i.ericed by ·nurses- ·was compared to the nurse's age, :marital status, educational level, position in n~rsing, an~ ·shift(s) wo~ked.·· A tool develop~d by the-researcher was used to survey 46 ra~domly· chos~n full-time., registered nurses from three southeastern, coastal hospitals. The burn.out-nieasU:rement tool consisted· of- a demographic data £orm and a· 25 ·item quest:,ionnaire on a Likert ..... ·type scale des~gned to measure a ~urse's degr~e of burnout. Results oft the study ind.icated that· marita,l status and working shif~s. had significant 'effects on the development of nurse burnout. Married nurses experienced a greater degree. of. burnout than single nurses and nurses who worked rotating shifts experienced a grea~er degree of burnout ' . .. than nurses .Y.J~O workerl: straight shi~ts ~ The.· n~ts'e·' s· age;·. educat~ionaL' level; area of employment within the hospital; and position in nursing,. or management vs. nol:unanageniertt;. had no significant· bearing on 'the degree of burnout expe-rienced hy·. the. n~rse(. This study provided some important artd_interestirig data that should be ·considered by anyone involved with ·professional nurses •. A_replica~ion of this study with a larger. sample size i's highly re-commended.