Understanding Resilience and Burnout levels in Child Health Nurses working at Starship Child Health

Abstract

Aim: The primary aim of this research portfolio is to gain understanding of resilience and burnout levels of Registered Nurse’s (RN’s) working at Starship Children’s Health (SCH). The secondary aims are to gain understanding about the workplace stressors as faced by RN’s at SCH and what resilience development strategies may assist this workforce in the development of resilience. Background: There is a growing body of literature on burnout and resilience in healthcare professionals (Asuero et al., 2014; Jackson, Firtko, Edenborough, 2007). Nurses have been identified as the most at risk health professional of burnout (Garrosa, Moreno-Jimenez, Liang & Gonzalez, 2006) yet actual research with RN’s as the sole studied population is still required. Burnout is commonly described as the combination of emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and the lack of personal accomplishment (Cohen-Katz, Wiley, Capuano, Baker & Shapira, 2005). Developing resilience in the nursing profession is seen as a way to combat the daily work stress nurses are exposed too (Gillespie, Chaboyer & Wallis, 2007b). Importantly, research links resilient nurses to lower burnout, resulting in improved patient safety, decreased cost and improved patient satisfaction (Iriving, Dobkin & Park, 2009). Methods: A non-experimental quantitative cross sectional approach was used to examine the current levels of burnout and resilience in RN’s working at SCH, the only dedicated Children’s tertiary Hospital in New Zealand. Two validated tools were utilised, the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) and the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). The questionnaire also investigated the current drivers of workplace stress experienced by RN’s and the resilience development strategies thought to be most useful to them. Results: RN respondents working at SCH scored below the threshold of resilience and a high number are suffering from burnout. 61 percent of RN respondents were found to be suffering moderate to high levels of emotional exhaustion and 44 percent moderate to high levels of depersonalisation. Working full time was shown to be a strong determinant of burnout. Higher resilience levels had a negative correlation with both emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation and a positive correlation with personal accomplishment. The top three work related stressors experienced by RN’s were identified as current expected workload, lack of resources and colleagues behaviour. The two resilience strategies identified by the RN’s as most helpful were team building and leadership development. Conclusion: This is the first New Zealand study about resilience and burnout levels of RN’s. The RN respondents working at SCH are suffering from reduced levels of resilience and a high level of burnout. The RN’s working full time are experiencing high levels of burnout with both high emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation levels. Asian and Maori RN’s are suffering higher levels of depersonalisation when compared to New Zealand European and Pacific RN’s. Recommendations: Building resilience in the RN workforce needs to be an organisational wide priority. Nursing managers need to discuss full time employments link to burnout and resilience development prior to employing RN’s in full time equivalent (FTE) positions.