Burnout and coping strategies among hospital staff nurses

This study examined the relationship between use of coping strategies and burnout among 150 randomly selected staff nurses from four hospitals Theinstruments used were the frequency dimension of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (Maslach & Jackson 1981) and the Ways of Coping (Revised) (Folkman & Lazarus 1985) In the canonical correlation analysis, two significant canonical variate sets differentiated nurses on the dimension of burnout Nurses whoexperienced increased levels of burnout used the coping strategies of escape/avoidance, self‐controlling and confronting (P<0.001) Nurses who experience decreased levels of burnout used the coping strategies of planful problem solving, positive reappraisal, seeking social support, and selfcontrolling (P<0.003) Self‐controlling coping, although present in both variate sets, was used to a lesser extent by nurses with decreased burnout levels The positive relationship between planful problem solving and reduced burnout levels supports the theoretical framework of Lazarus This framework asserts that during the appraisal process, persons evaluate the harmfulness of an event and their own coping resources Persons with lower levels of burnout may perceive the event as amenable to change or they may perceive their coping resources as adequate Either perception may promote the view that the situation is amenable to problem solving Another rationale for the effectiveness of particular coping strategies may lie in the reactions that these strategies engender in others The use of planful problem solving, seeking social support and positive reappraisal has been reported to result in the offering of greater social support than when confronting and self‐controlling coping were used. An implication of the study is the inclusion of information about the relative effectiveness of coping strategies into stress inoculation programmes These programmes give persons preparatory information to enable them to increase their tolerance for subsequent threatening events Stress inoculation should be included in nursing curricular and staff development programmes However to avoid ‘blaming the victim’, the nurse who succumbs to burnout because of overwhelming environmental stressors, stress inoculation should be coupled with organizational strategies to promote positive working conditions.