THE HOPELESSNESS THEORY AND THE BURNOUT OF NURSES.
Contributors: Fielding Institute (Santa Barbara, Calif.)
Published: 1991
Number of pages: 195
Subjects: Psychology, Personality.; Psychology, Behavioral.; Psychology, Industrial.; Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: This type of study can best be described as exploratory field research where the intent was to investigate relationships between distal and proximal cognitive factors, using the hopelessness theory of depression as a model, and vulnerability or resistance to depression and burnout in nurses working in long-term care facilities. How nurses respond to negative events may influence whether they become depressed or burnout at their job. There were 151 nurses from 23 long-term care facilities who participated in this study. The results of the study suggest that vulnerability or resistance to depression or burnout may be related to the types of negative events experienced by nurses (negative life events or negative work events), their particular cognitive style in response to typical negative work events (distal factors), and their particular cognitive response to the specific negative event (proximal factors). This suggests that the model proposed by the hopelessness theory of depression may be of great importance in burnout research for nurses working in long-term care facilities. This also may mean that nurses can be trained to better deal with the negative events and high stress of their jobs as nurses in long-term care facilities, thus reducing their chances of premature burnout.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-10, Section: B, page: 5568.

Thesis (PH.D.)--THE FIELDING INSTITUTE, 1991.

School code: 0565.