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chapter 13 | Work-Related Stress and Burnout 205 CikguOnline
Stressors Leading to Burnout box 13-1
Personal Factors Five Sources of Job Stress That Can Lead
to Burnout
Some of the personal factors influencing job stress
and burnout are age, gender, number of children, 1. Intrinsic factors. Characteristics of the job itself, such as
the multiple aspects of complex patient care that many
education, experience, and favored coping style. For
nurses provide; lack of autonomy
example, the fact that many nurses are single par- 2. Organizational variables. Characteristics of the
ents raising families alone adds to the demands of organization, such as limited financial resources, staffing,
already difficult days at work. Married nurses may workload, models of care delivery
have the additional stress of dual-career homes, 3. Reward system. The way in which employees are
rewarded or punished, particularly if these are obviously
causing even more stress in coordinating work and
unfair
vacation schedules as well as day-care problems. 4. Human resources system. In particular, the number
Baby boomers are finding they need to care for el- and availability of opportunities for staff development,
derly parents along with their children (DeFrank & salary and benefits, organizational policies
Ivancevich, 1998). Competitive, impatient, and 5. Leadership. The way in which managers relate to their
staff, particularly if they are unrealistic, uncaring, or
hostile personality traits have also been associated
unfair; communication patterns with supervisors and
with emotional exhaustion and subsequent burnout coworkers
(Borman, 1993). Most experienced nurses state
Adapted from Carr, K., & Kazanowski, M. (1994). Factors affecting job satisfac-
that they separate their home from work when tion of nurses who work in long-term care. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 19,
dealing with work-related stressors and that they 878–883; Crawford, S. (1993). Job stress and occupational health nursing.
American Association of Occupational Health Nurses Journal, 41, 522–529;
try but usually fail to leave their work-related stres-
Duquette, A., Sandhu, B., & Beaudet, L. (1994). Factors related to nursing
sors in the workplace (Hall, 2004). burnout: A review of empirical knowledge. Issues in Mental Health Nursing,
15, 337–358; and Best, M., & Thurston, N. (2004). Measuring nurse job
satisfaction, Journal of Nursing Administration, 34(6), 283–290.
Job-Related Conditions
Job-related stress is broadly defined by the
National Institute for Occupational Safety and to medicinal and antiseptic substances, unpleasant
Health as the “harmful physical and emotional sights, and high noise levels can cause stress for
responses that occur when the requirements of the some people. Health-care providers experiencing
job do not match the capabilities, resources, or burnout may become cynical and even hostile
needs of the worker” (http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/ toward their coworkers and colleagues (Carr &
homepage.html). Since the prior edition of this Kazanowski, 1994; Dionne-Proulx & Pepin, 1993;
text, the threat of terrorism has been added to the Goodell & Van Ess Coeling, 1994; Stechmiller &
list of job-related conditions that contribute to job- Yarandi, 1993; Tumulty, Jernigan, & Kohut, 1994).
related stress. Box 13-1 lists some of these condi- In some instances, human service professionals
tions, which were discussed in Chapter 12. also experience lower pay, longer hours, and more
extensive regulation than do professionals in other
Human Service Occupations fields. Inadequate advancement opportunities for
People who work in human service organizations women and minorities in lower-status, lower-paid
consistently report lower levels of job satisfaction positions are apparent in many health-care areas.
than do people working in other types of organiza-
tions. Much of the stress experienced by nurses is Conflicting Demands
related to the nature of their work: continued Meeting work-related responsibilities and main-
intensive, intimate contact with people who often taining a family and personal life can increase stress
have serious and sometimes fatal physical, mental, when there is insufficient time or energy for all of
emotional, and/or social problems. Efforts to save these. As mentioned in the section on personal fac-
patients or help them achieve a peaceful ending to tors, both the single and the married parent are at
their lives are not always successful. Despite nurses’ risk because of the conflicting demands of their
best efforts, many patients get worse, not better. personal and work lives. The perception of balance
Some return to their destructive behaviors; others in one’s life is a personal one.
do not recover and die. The continued loss of There appear to be some differences in the way
patients alone can lead to burnout. Even exposure that men and women find a comfortable balance.