Professional burnout of mental health nurses

Abstract

Introduction: Burnout is defined as the syndrome that causes emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and reduction in personal achievement and concers people-oriented professions.
Aim: Τhis study investigate the effects of burnout on the physical and mental health of nurses working in the field of mental health, to understand their views and experience as well as to record and interpret the impact of the context and characteristics of their work. to themselves in life outside of work.
Material and Methods: For the conduct of the present study, the qualitative research method was adopted and face-to-face semi-structured in-depth interviews were used to collect the research material, from August to October 2021. The research material comes from 16 mental health nurses working in Athens and the interview process was conducted outside the workplace. Nurses were recruited via snowball sampling.
Results: The results of the study confirm the effects of burnout on nurses’ physical health and the occurrence of psychological distress. Employees focused on the specific characteristics of psychiatric patients and non-harmonized relationships with colleagues. Nursing staff experienced emotional exhaustion more intensely due to stress because psychiatric patients required constant contact and communication and because of their increased needs that a small number of workers had to meet. Regarding the feeling of personal achievement, the interviewees evaluate their performance positively and were satisfied with the effectiveness of the care provided. On the dimension of depersonalization, the participants stated that they had experienced it, however in their majority they expressed that they do not wish to distance themselves from their duties.
Conclusion: The exploration of the impact of the work context on life outside of workplace revealed that the social and family life of participants was not significantly affected and communication and support from family members was highlighted as important. Workers make efforts to ensure that life outside work is not significantly affected.