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Burnout in nurses – the relationship between social capital in hospitals and emotional exhaustion
Author(s) -
Kowalski Christoph,
Ommen Oliver,
Driller Elke,
Ernstmann Nicole,
Wirtz Markus A,
Köhler Thorsten,
Pfaff Holger
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of clinical nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.94
H-Index - 102
eISSN - 1365-2702
pISSN - 0962-1067
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2702.2009.02989.x
Subject(s) - emotional exhaustion , burnout , workload , medicine , nursing , logistic regression , social capital , psychology , clinical psychology , social science , sociology , computer science , operating system
Aims. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between a hospital’s social capital, individual decision latitude, workload and emotional exhaustion in nurses, controlling for age, sex, years of professional experience and job tenure. Background. In western countries between 15–45% of nurses working in hospitals suffer from burnout, characterised by emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and decreased personal performance. The prevention of burnout constitutes a great challenge to those responsible for the health care system, not least because burnout may cause increasing turnover rates in nurses and lead to medical mistakes. Design. Survey. Method. A questionnaire was mailed to 1325 nurses working at four hospitals in east and west Germany in 2002. Nine hundred and fifty nine nurses responded (response rate: 72·4%). Results. Logistic regression identified three significant predictors of emotional exhaustion in nurses: workload (OR: 4·523, CI: 3·230–6·333) was positively associated with emotional exhaustion. Decision latitude (OR: 0·376, CI: 0·254–0·557) and social capital in the hospitals (OR: 0·549, CI: 0·403–0·746) were negatively associated with emotional exhaustion. Emotional exhaustion was not affected by age, sex, years of professional experience and job tenure. Nagelkerke′s Pseudo R 2 was 0·225. Conclusions. The findings underline the importance of social capital and organisational development in hospital management. Relevance to clinical practice. Efforts to create a good working atmosphere with readiness to provide mutual support and the pursuit of joint values in a hospital, the reduction of workload and increased decision latitude may prevent the development of emotional exhaustion in nurses.