PREDICTORS OF BURNOUT IN CRITICAL CARE NURSES

Objective: To develop a conceptual path model to explain the effects o f a set of personal and occupational independent variables and the dep endent variables of situational stress, job stress, job satisfaction, and job motivation on burnout among critical care nurses. Design: A pr ospective descriptive study using a conceptual path model. Setting: Ni ne hospitals in the northeastern, northwestern, north central, and sou thern regions of Florida. Sample: Three hundred female critical care n urses employed in the nine hospitals who had worked full-time for at l east 3 months. Instruments: Subjects were administered a demographic a nd work survey instrument, the Daily Hassles Instrument, the Psycholog ical Hardiness Test, the Job Diagnostic Inventory, and the Maslach Bur nout Inventory. Results: Path analysis of a burnout model resulted in a causal progression of situational stress, job stress, job satisfacti on, and emotional exhaustion (which is a component of burnout). The re sults showed that commitment to career, health difficulties, psycholog ic hardiness, work load satisfaction, dealing with others at work, job security, and job satisfaction had a significant effect on emotional exhaustion. Conclusion: Seven variables had a significant effect on em otional exhaustion, which is a component of burnout, and explained 34% of the variance. The three most significant effects on emotional exha ustion were commitment to career, dealing with others at work and job satisfaction. Health difficulties, psychologic hardiness, work load sa tisfaction, and job security had a modest effect on emotional exhausti on.