Stress of conscience and burnout of nurses in intensive care units
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14528/snr.2021.55.3.3007Keywords:
workplace stress, workplace burnout, intensive care nursing, mental healthAbstract
Introduction: Conscience is a multidimensional concept allowing nurses to be aware of lower quality care of their patients as well as their own limitations. Acting against one's conscience can lead to burnout. The aim of the study was to investigate the link between the stress of conscience and burnout of nurses working in intensive care.
Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted on a convenience sample of 46 nurses. A Swedish questionnaire Stress of Conscience was used. The questionnaire showed high internal validity (Cronbach α = 0.875). Data were collected in December 2017 and analysed with IBM SPSS Statistics 23. Descriptive and bivariate statistics were used in data analysis. Fisher exact test, T-test of two independent samples, Mann- Whitney U test and one-way ANOVA were used.
Results: Respondent's age and gender had a statistically significant effect on the overall stress of conscience (p = 0.048 for age, p = 0.005 for gender). The study showed no statistically significant effects on gender, age, duration of employment or education level on the presence of burnout symptoms. The effects of the work environment on private life showed most connection with burnout (r= 0.503, p<0.001).
Discussion and conclusion: Stress of conscience is present among nurses working in intensive care units. Nurses are confronted with many stressors that cause stress of conscience. The study has showed that stress of conscience can increase the presence of burnout symptoms. Further research should focus on minimizing the stress of conscience and burnout.
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