Nursing Education & Research

Biography

She is a registered nurse qualified in 2013 by the University of Valladolid, Spain and working for the NHS in Basildon and Thurrock University Hospital since 2016.

 

Abstract

Introduction: Nursing burnout has become a paramount object of study in order to ensure the best quality of care to patients and prevent professionals from quitting their job. The aim of this review is to determine if there is any correlation between nursing burnout and the various environments this job is performed in.

Methods: The study design chosen was a literature review, with a qualitative methodology applied. The research consisted of original printing that compared the burnout level between nursing staff in hospital and the community. Publications were searched in databases such as PubMed, CINAHL, LILACS and Cochrane Library, using the descriptors “nursing”, “burnout” and “Maslach”, and employing as Boolean operator “and”. Inclusion criteria were original full text publications written in English and/or Spanish between 2013 and 2018, with a sample over 50 registered nurses who work directly with patient. Some publications were dismissed because they studied the burnout level amongst other medical staff besides nurses, like doctors, paramedics or healthcare assistants. In addition, other printings entirely focused on the nursing practice in specialised areas such as psychiatry, critical care and the emergency department were discarded.

Following this process, the critical reading toll “CASPe” was implemented, acquiring the 11 publications used in this review.

Results: 13 out of the 1057 publications initially found that were related to the research, met the inclusion criteria, and 6 have been included in this review after passing “CASPe”. The results obtained from this review showed that, predominantly, the environment of practice is correlated to burnout syndrome and their prevalence is larger in nurses who work in hospital. Nevertheless, nurses working in hospitals with better work environment reported lowest levels of burnout and it was determined that an increase in the patient-to-nurse ratio is associated with an increase in emotional exhaustion. To this extend, emotional exhaustion was the trait more consistently related to the environment, being the main affected dimension of burnout in nurses who worked in the community.

Conclusions: Environment may affect burnout levels amongst nursing staff, being nurses who work in hospitals more liable than their peers in community.