MEASURING THE BURNOUT OF MICHIGAN HOSPICE NURSES.
Contributors: Wayne State University.
Published: 1988
Number of pages: 136
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: The purpose of this study was to measure the prevalence of burnout among hospice nurses in Michigan. Christina Maslach's Burnout Syndrome was the conceptual framework for this study. Maslach describes burnout as a syndrome involving emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and a sense of reduced personal accomplishment perceived by persons working in the human service professions. Burnout is the result of prolonged contact with people who have multiple needs.

Two questionnaires were sent to 101 potential study participants. Sixty-nine usable questionnaires were returned. The first questionnaire, the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), defines burnout using three subscales: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment. The group mean for each subscale constituted the three dependent variables. The independent variables reflected data requested on the socio-demographic questionnaire, including basic nursing education, sex, marital status, years in nursing and hospice, position in hospice, work status, age, and nurse-patient ratio. Descriptive statistics, analysis of variance, t-test, and multiple regression were used in the analysis of data.

The average hospice nurse is 44 years old, a graduate of a diploma program, has been in nursing 18 years, but has been a hospice nurse for fewer than three years. This nurse is female, married, and most likely works as a staff nurse for a home care based hospice.

The group means for the three subscales were calculated with the following results: emotional exhaustion = 19; depersonalization = 3.9; and personal accomplishment = 39. Because there are no national norms for hospice nurses established by the MBI, the results of this sample could not be compared to a national sample to establish the level of burnout. The analysis of data revealed that nurses working full time perceived more burnout than nurses working part-time. There were no statistically significant differences on the dependent variables between in-patient and home care nurses, or nurses who work as administrators as opposed to nurses working in direct patient care. Nurses who were experienced in nursing and who worked full time, accounted for 38% of the variance for the depersonalization subscale. Nurses working full time accounted for 22% of the variance for the emotional exhaustion subscale.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 50-03, Section: B, page: 0904.

Thesis (PH.D.)--WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY, 1988.

School code: 0254.