Branin JJ, Griemel ER; Association for Health Services Research. Meeting.
Abstr Book Assoc Health Serv Res Meet. 1997; 14: 352.
University of California at Los Angeles, Altadena, CA 91001, USA.
AUDIENCE: Clinicians and other caregivers, health service researchers and policymakers interested in nursing home research. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES: Professional burnout is a serious problem among human services workers particularly nursing home personnel. Burnout has been associated with declines in professional effectiveness and work satisfaction, and increases in absenteeism and turnover. It can lead to deterioration in quality of patient care and less empathy towards patients. Among the principal contributors are work-setting concerns and interpersonal conflicts. The purpose of this research was to investigate the effects of a training intervention program on empathy, group cohesion, and burnout among nursing personnel. STUDY POPULATION: A random sample of fifty-three personnel at five nursing homes; the majority of whom were females between the ages of 18-35 with daily direct patient contact and who were employed full-time, worked days, and had a high school diploma or equivalent. Most had been in their position for less than 12 months. STUDY DESIGN: Fifty-three nursing home personnel participated in a four-module educational training program designed to increase group cohesiveness and empathic tendencies and decrease perceived levels of burnout in nursing home personnel. Measures of burnout, empathy, and group cohesion were obtained using the Maslach Burnout Inventory Human Services Survey (MBI), the Mehrabian Emotional Empathy Scale (MES), and Seashore's Group Cohesiveness Index before and one month after the training intervention. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: After the training nursing home personnel reported significantly lower levels of professional burnout(t=3.11, p<.01). Feelings of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization decreased while sense of personal accomplishment increased significantly (t=-3.45, p<.01). Group cohesion was negatively correlated to perceived burnout (r=-.54. p<.001). Decreased perceived burnout was associated with increased willingness to help one another on the job and greater feelings of getting along with one another and sticking together. A very modest negative correlation was found between empathic tendencies and perceived burnout (r=-.11, ns). RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE AND POLICY: These findings suggest that nursing home personnel can benefit from the time and money spent on educational training programs. Training interventions can positively impact the level of professional burnout in nursing home personnel which may decrease turnover among nursing home personnel and improve the quality of patient care.
Publication Types:
Keywords:
- Burnout, Professional
- Data Collection
- Depersonalization
- Education, Nursing
- Empathy
- Faculty, Nursing
- Female
- Humans
- Inservice Training
- Job Satisfaction
- Nurses
- Nursing Homes
- Nursing Staff
- Personnel Turnover
- Social Work
- Teaching
- education
- manpower
- hsrmtgs
Other ID:
UI: 102233920
From Meeting Abstracts