THE EXPERIENCE OF BURNOUT IN PSYCHIATRIC/MENTAL HEALTH NURSING: AN INTERPRETIVE INTERACTIONIST APPROACH.
Contributors: University of Texas at Austin.
Published: 1995
Number of pages: 177
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Health Sciences, Mental Health.; Health Sciences, Health Care Management.; Psychology, Industrial.
Description: This study investigated psychiatric nurses' lived experience of burnout while working in inpatient units in psychiatric hospitals. Interpretive interactionism was used to examine subjective interpretations of personal troubles and public issues. Twelve psychiatric nurses, who identified themselves as having suffered burnout were interviewed to capture thick description of their epiphany experiences. The sample included variations in gender, age, educational preparation, experience, and types of employing organizations.

Bracketing the key phrases from nurses' thick descriptions resulted in the emergence of two major themes, victimization and coming to reality. The participants identified feeling victimized in, and by, their employing organizations by being discounted, set up for failure, and beaten down. Being discounted involved a reduction in benefits and having their professional input into decisions that impacted the patients and the milieu ignored. Being set up for failure involved being held accountable for the well-being of patients and the milieu without adequate resources to do the job. Being beaten down was the experience of being blamed, criticized, and reprimanded by supervisors and administrators for consequences of decisions over which they had no control.

The second major theme that emerged, coming to reality was a process by which nurses broke through their denial systems and began to trust their own perceptions, thoughts and feelings. Three sub-themes that emerged were making a difference, making sense of senselessness, and making decisions. Making a difference involved nurses' self confidence in their personal power to influence patients in a positive manner. Making sense of senselessness involved developing a cognitive framework, or a rational explanation for what nurses saw and believed were irrational actions and decisions of administrators and supervisors. Making decisions involved a cognitive assessment of the costs and benefits of nurse's employment and determining what course of action was in their best interest.

In contextualization, the themes of the experience of burnout were interpreted in the context of nursing and health care organizations. Nurses' experiences were compared to descriptions of types and consequences of emotional abuse. The comparison illustrated how nurses' burnout was experienced as emotional abuse inflicted in what they called dysfunctional organizations.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-06, Section: B, page: 3127.

Thesis (PH.D.)--THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN, 1995.

School code: 0227.