Investigation of factors influencing burnout levels in the professional and private lives of nurses

This is a descriptive, cross-sectional and partly analytic study aiming to determine the factors causing burnout in professional and private lives of nurses working in the university and state hospitals in a city. About 333 nurses were reached by sampling method. Data collection was made by a question form consisting of two parts. The first part was developed by the investigators. In this part, data on demographic, professional and private life conditions of individuals were collected. In the second part, "Maslach Burnout Inventory" was used to determine the burnout levels of individuals. The most important findings of the present study are as follows: higher education level, work experience and higher status decrease burnout while working at night shifts increases it. In addition, nurses who have problems in relations with the other team members and are not satisfied with their work conditions have higher levels of burnout. Having difficulty in childcare and in doing house chores, health problems of the nurse herself or her children, economic hardships and difficulties encountered in transportation are other factors increasing burnout. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.