Job burnout and occupational stress among nurses

Objective To explore the relationship between job burnout and occupational stress among nurses for the improvements of the nurses' mental and physical health and life quality.Methods The study population was comprised of 515 nurses working more than 6 months from six hospitals in Liaoning province.Job burnout was measured with Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey(MBI-GS).Occupational stress was measured with Job Content Questionnaire(JCQ) and Effort-Reward Imbalance Questionnaire(ERI).Results The mean MBI-GS scores were 13.45±7.18 for emotional exhaustion,7.21±5.27 for cynicism,and 26.04±10.19 for professional efficacy.Univariate analyses showed that MBI-GS scores of the nurses of younger(≤30 years),single,being a head nurse,working on shift,and with serious dissatisfaction to nurse-patient relationship were higher than those of other groups(P < 0.05).The influencing factors,in the sequence of standardized coefficients of multivariate regression,were extrinsic effort(β=0.383),intrinsic effort(β=0.226) and decision authority(β=-0.115) for emotional exhaustion,extrinsic effort(β=0.253),overcommitment(β=0.159),supervisor support(β=-0.112) and skill discretion(β=-0.098) for cynicism,and psychological job demand(β=-0.159) and skill discretion(β=0.130) for professional efficacy.Conclusion Occupational stress has significant effect on job burnout among nurses.