BURNOUT AMONG FEMALE NURSING STUDENTS

Abstract

Objective: To determine the frequency of burnout among Pakistani military female nursing students and to find out its association with demographic factors and common stressors during training.
Study Design: Cross-sectional analytical study.
Place and Duration of Study: This study was carried out at Combined Military Hospital (CMH) Lahore and CMH Lahore Medical and Dental College from Mar to Apr 2015.
Material and Methods: Sample consisted of 84 female nursing students. Since it was a relatively small sample and participants were easily accessible so all 84 students available at the time of study were included. Mashlach Burnout Inventory (MBI) (which included 20 questions) was used to measure emotional exhaustion, and burnout. The questionnaire also elicited information about socio-demographic characteristics and various perceived stressors during their training. Data analysis was performed by using SPSS version 20.0.
Results: On the MBI, 66 (78.6%) nurses showed mild emotional exhaustion, 17 (20.2%) showed moderate emotional exhaustion and only 1 (1.2%) showed high emotional exhaustion. Similarly no burnout was found in 29 (34.5%) nurses; whereas mild burnout was found in 30 (35.7%), moderate burnout in 19 (22.6%), severe burnout in 5 (6%), and only one nurse student (1.2%) showed extreme burnout. No significant association was found between various stressors and burnout (p>0.05).
Conclusion: There is low level of burnout in female military nursing students in this study. This is a favorable finding and may be considered helpful in increasing productivity, performance and quality of patient care.