Work context, personal control, and burnout amongst nurses

While situational factors such as high workloads have been found to be predictive of burnout, not all people in the same work context develop burnout. This suggests that individual factors are implicated in susceptibility to burnout. We investigated the relationships between care type (acute/chronic), neuroticism, control (primary/secondary), and symptoms of burnout (exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced professional efficacy) amongst 21 chronic care nurses and 83 acute care nurses working in a public hospital in regional Australia. Similar levels of burnout symptomatology and neuroticism were found in each group of nurses, and neuroticism was found to be associated with exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced professional efficacy in the total sample of nurses. Our prediction that primary control would protect against burnout symptoms in acute care nurses was supported only for professional efficacy, and the prediction that secondary control would protect against burnout in chronic care nurses was not supported.

Burnout in the caring nurse: learning resilient behaviours

This paper reviews current literature to offer a discussion related to burnout, an issue that affects the entire healthcare sector, including nurses and patients. Literature suggests a correlation between moral distress and burnout in nurses. These issues are considered to be current and affect recruitment and retention of nurses. The authors propose supporting nurses by using knowledge of resilient behaviours as a means of transcending burnout and workplace stress. The authors believe that this process can be achieved through existing hospital professional development processes, for example supervision, reflective practice, in-service education and other forms of professional development.

Injury and burnout in Australian athletes

The relationship between injury and burnout in a sample of 264 local to international Australian athletes (124 men and 140 women) was studied. Injury can be a stressful experience for athletes; coupled with the demands of rehabilitation, it could increase feelings of burnout. Experiencing more than one injury could have a cumulative effect on feelings of burnout. Alternatively, for some athletes the break from training or competing caused by an injury could alleviate burnout symptoms. Participants completed a demographic questionnaire and a modified version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Independent sample t tests indicated that currently injured athletes (n = 150) had significantly lower mean Burnout scores than currently uninjured athletes (n = 113). Small, but statistically significant, positive correlations were found between number of injuries and Burnout scores. Possible explanations are that injury provides a temporary break from intense sporting involvement and, thus, lower scores on Burnout, but multiple injuries might have a cumulative effect on burnout.

Burnout in physicians : a case for peer-support

Background: It is well documented that doctors experience a high level of stress in their profession, and that this can lead to physical, psychological, and emotional harm, in particular, burnout. Overseas (especially in the UK and USA), research investigating the levels of stress, burnout, and associated psychiatric morbidity in health professionals, across many specialities, has been carried out with a view to prevention of these adverse outcomes.

Aims: To assess the level of burnout in a sample of New Zealand physicians, the associated work and personal characteristics, and the need for development of a support peer supervision or support system.

Methods: Questionnaires that measured a number of work and personal characteristics, including the Maslach Burnout Inventory, the General Health Questionnaire, and additional questions regarding mistakes, and need for support, were sent to 83 physicians in the Waikato and Bay of Plenty areas. Analysis involved descriptive statistics, with t-tests for comparison with other studies, Pearson Product-Moment correlations between variables and analysis of variance where appropriate.

Results: Of the 50 respondents, 28% experienced high levels of two or three aspects of burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, low personal accomplishment). Emotional exhaustion correlated with a greater need for support. Most respondents favoured a one-to-one support system.

Conclusion: This study highlights the presence of significant workplace difficulties for physicians and the need to develop a preventative support system for the protection of physicians and the patients in their care.

Burnout and the conservation of resources theory

This thesis examines, within the framework of the Conservation of Resources Theory, the development of burnout in a sample of Victorian nurses over a nine-month period. Results showed that work characteristics demonstrated different associations with burnout and that COR theory was partially successful as an explanatory framework.

Healthy or burnout

A model of stress, employee health and intention to quit, was tested among psychiatric nurses. Results indicated that organizational support and employees' sense of control positively mediate the stressor-health relationship at individual and organizational levels, while work-family conflict worsens employee health and increases intention to quit. The professional portfolio explores the association between depression and cognitive functioning, and its impact on the use of cognitive behavioural therapy in the treatment of depression.

Overtraining or burnout : a training and psycho-behavioural case study

The aim of this article is to present case study data that challenges the popular conception that athlete burnout represents the ultimate outcome of overtraining. A young male triathlete (22 yrs) completed a comprehensive training diary, along with the Athlete Burnout Questionnaire (ABQ) and the Multi-component Training Distress Scale (MTDS) weekly from the commencement of pre-season training, until the end of the competitive season 45 weeks later. Results were analysed retrospectively upon completion of the season and followed up with semi-structured interviews with the coach and athlete. These longitudinal observations are the first to document an athlete who appears to have simultaneously become overtrained and developed athlete burnout as measured by the ABQ. Thus we are advocating a need for future research to clarify differences between these two training-stress syndromes, specifically in relation to their aetiology, to avoid misdiagnosis and to ensure appropriate treatment for athletes experiencing these conditions is provided.

Influence of high performance work systems on employee subjective well-being and job burnout: empirical evidence from the Chinese healthcare sector

Over the last two decades, high performance work systems (HPWSs) research has been dominated by examining the effects of these systems on firm performance. Research on the impact of HPWSs on employees has been marginalised. This study examines the impact of HPWSs on two psychological outcomes for employees, namely, subjective well-being (SWB) and workplace burnout, by utilising data collected from 1488 physicians and nurses in 25 Chinese hospitals. It also examines the moderating effects of employees' organisational based self-esteem (OBSE), as an individual intervention and physician–nurse relationships, as an organisational intervention, on the relationship between HPWSs and employee outcomes. HPWS is found to increase employees' SWB and decrease burnout. Such well-being-enhancing and burnout-relieving effects are stronger when employees have high OBSE. The positive effect of HPWS on SWB is also stronger when there is a collaborative relationship among employees in an organisation. The major contribution of this study is to unpack the ‘black box’ of how HPWS influences employee well-being in the Chinese healthcare sector context.

Burnout among university accounting educators in Australia and New Zealand: Determinants and implications

Increased teaching workloads combined with pressures to publish in limited outlets has intensified the burnout potential among accounting educators in Australia and New Zealand. However, amongst the few studies on tertiary accounting education, the focus has so far been only on burnout arising from student contact intensity. We broaden this literature by examining how other worklife characteristics contribute to burnout. Based on 158 responses from Australian and New Zealand accounting academics, we find evidence for emotional exhaustion due to high workload. However, professional efficacy continues to remain high. Qualitative responses offer deeper insights on how various burnout factors are interrelated.