nize and respect that you have a life outside of nursing? If so you are one of the lucky ones and this will probably be reflected in the burnout statistics for your work area.
*The nurse and their own individual circumstance and set of coping resources and supports.

Burnout perspectives
Patients and Consumers of nursing services

Interestingly given that most of us pursue nursing as a career because we want to care and assist people we need to be mindful of the fact that professional burnout can negatively impact the care provided to the very people we intend to help -- the patient!!

Nurses
There is great privilege in being able to support someone through the best and worst of what life has

You can hear the ringing of the alarm in the distance, you feel too tired to drag yourself from the bed to shut it off. You have slept for hours yet still don't feel rested. Slowly you push your weary self from the bed. The last thing you feel like doing is fronting up for your shift. You feel absolutely drained; mentally, physically and emotionally. You are running on empty. You started your nursing career full of zeal and zest but the reality of the constant caring and the demands of the work environment are far removed from your expectations. When you think about it you can see you are in a downward spiral. You have been avoiding making decisions and getting involved in your life. There certainly is no eagerness left for your job and just barely enough for your relationships outside of work. The passion is gone. You literally feel like you have nothing more to give, overwhelmed even with the demands of nursing or perhaps experiencing feelings of sadness, anger or indifference. If this situation rings true for you or someone you know - then professional burnout may be the culprit.

According to Maslach (1) burnout is a syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and decreased personal accomplishment that may occur in those occupations that work with people on a daily basis. From a nursing perspective burnout is experienced by nurses throughout the world and throughout the variety of clinical practice settings.

Causes of burnout There is no doubt that nursing has innate stressors and the very nature of the work and the work environment holds a risk of professional burnout. How that risk unfolds is a complex interrelationship between multiple factors which include:

*The work: nurses deal on a daily basis with the best and worst of all life and death entails and a multitude of in betweens.
*Working conditions: work load pressures, patient demands, power imbalances in the 'team' environment, staff shortages which compound the workload pressures, shift work and consequent impact on fatigue levels. Consider also that at times nurses experience violence and even threats to their life as a simple fact of their everyday work environment.
*A unrelenting sense of responsibility, this feeling that you need to help and assist - often in circumstances of funding constraints and workforce shortages it is impossible for you to deliver. There is often lack of clarity about just what it is you need to do to be a 'good' nurse.
*What nurse's experience on a day to day basis if often far removed from what they thought and were promised when they entered nursing.
*Nurses and their competence are often over scrutinized and under supported. Even in this day of enlightenment we are still subjected to the blame and train the nurse mentality when anything goes wrong.
*Talented boss or not? Does you boss have skills in leadership, team building and engagement? Are they prepared to say no to the hierarchy when their team is under resourced and over pressured? Do they recognize and respect that you have a life outside of nursing? If so you are one of the lucky ones and this will probably be reflected in the burnout statistics for your work area.
*The nurse and their own individual circumstance and set of coping resources and supports.

Burnout perspectives
Patients and Consumers of nursing services

Interestingly given that most of us pursue nursing as a career because we want to care and assist people we need to be mindful of the fact that professional burnout can negatively impact the care provided to the very people we intend to help -- the patient!!

Nurses
There is great privilege in being able to support someone through the best and worst of what life has

lationships outside of work. The passion is gone. You literally feel like you have nothing more to give, overwhelmed even with the demands of nursing or perhaps experiencing feelings of sadness, anger or indifference. If this situation rings true for you or someone you know - then professional burnout may be the culprit.

According to Maslach (1) burnout is a syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and decreased personal accomplishment that may occur in those occupations that work with people on a daily basis. From a nursing perspective burnout is experienced by nurses throughout the world and throughout the variety of clinical practice settings.

Causes of burnout There is no doubt that nursing has innate stressors and the very nature of the work and the work environment holds a risk of professional burnout. How that risk unfolds is a complex interrelationship between multiple factors which include:

*The work: nurses deal on a daily basis with the best and worst of all life and death entails and a multitude of in betweens.
*Working conditions: work load pressures, patient demands, power imbalances in the 'team' environment, staff shortages which compound the workload pressures, shift work and consequent impact on fatigue levels. Consider also that at times nurses experience violence and even threats to their life as a simple fact of their everyday work environment.
*A unrelenting sense of responsibility, this feeling that you need to help and assist - often in circumstances of funding constraints and workforce shortages it is impossible for you to deliver. There is often lack of clarity about just what it is you need to do to be a 'good' nurse.
*What nurse's experience on a day to day basis if often far removed from what they thought and were promised when they entered nursing.
*Nurses and their competence are often over scrutinized and under supported. Even in this day of enlightenment we are still subjected to the blame and train the nurse mentality when anything goes wrong.
*Talented boss or not? Does you boss have skills in leadership, team building and engagement? Are they prepared to say no to the hierarchy when their team is under resourced and over pressured? Do they recognize and respect that you have a life outside of nursing? If so you are one of the lucky ones and this will probably be reflected in the burnout statistics for your work area.
*The nurse and their own individual circumstance and set of coping resources and supports.

Burnout perspectives
Patients and Consumers of nursing services

Interestingly given that most of us pursue nursing as a career because we want to care and assist people we need to be mindful of the fact that professional burnout can negatively impact the care provided to the very people we intend to help -- the patient!!

Nurses
There is great privilege in being able to support someone through the best and worst of what life has

the very nature of the work and the work environment holds a risk of professional burnout. How that risk unfolds is a complex interrelationship between multiple factors which include:

*The work: nurses deal on a daily basis with the best and worst of all life and death entails and a multitude of in betweens.
*Working conditions: work load pressures, patient demands, power imbalances in the 'team' environment, staff shortages which compound the workload pressures, shift work and consequent impact on fatigue levels. Consider also that at times nurses experience violence and even threats to their life as a simple fact of their everyday work environment.
*A unrelenting sense of responsibility, this feeling that you need to help and assist - often in circumstances of funding constraints and workforce shortages it is impossible for you to deliver. There is often lack of clarity about just what it is you need to do to be a 'good' nurse.
*What nurse's experience on a day to day basis if often far removed from what they thought and were promised when they entered nursing.
*Nurses and their competence are often over scrutinized and under supported. Even in this day of enlightenment we are still subjected to the blame and train the nurse mentality when anything goes wrong.
*Talented boss or not? Does you boss have skills in leadership, team building and engagement? Are they prepared to say no to the hierarchy when their team is under resourced and over pressured? Do they recognize and respect that you have a life outside of nursing? If so you are one of the lucky ones and this will probably be reflected in the burnout statistics for your work area.
*The nurse and their own individual circumstance and set of coping resources and supports.

Burnout perspectives
Patients and Consumers of nursing services

Interestingly given that most of us pursue nursing as a career because we want to care and assist people we need to be mindful of the fact that professional burnout can negatively impact the care provided to the very people we intend to help -- the patient!!

Nurses
There is great privilege in being able to support someone through the best and worst of what life has

often in circumstances of funding constraints and workforce shortages it is impossible for you to deliver. There is often lack of clarity about just what it is you need to do to be a 'good' nurse.
*What nurse's experience on a day to day basis if often far removed from what they thought and were promised when they entered nursing.
*Nurses and their competence are often over scrutinized and under supported. Even in this day of enlightenment we are still subjected to the blame and train the nurse mentality when anything goes wrong.
*Talented boss or not? Does you boss have skills in leadership, team building and engagement? Are they prepared to say no to the hierarchy when their team is under resourced and over pressured? Do they recognize and respect that you have a life outside of nursing? If so you are one of the lucky ones and this will probably be reflected in the burnout statistics for your work area.
*The nurse and their own individual circumstance and set of coping resources and supports.

Burnout perspectives
Patients and Consumers of nursing services

Interestingly given that most of us pursue nursing as a career because we want to care and assist people we need to be mindful of the fact that professional burnout can negatively impact the care provided to the very people we intend to help -- the patient!!

Nurses
There is great privilege in being able to support someone through the best and worst of what life has

nize and respect that you have a life outside of nursing? If so you are one of the lucky ones and this will probably be reflected in the burnout statistics for your work area.
*The nurse and their own individual circumstance and set of coping resources and supports.

Burnout perspectives
Patients and Consumers of nursing services

Interestingly given that most of us pursue nursing as a career because we want to care and assist people we need to be mindful of the fact that professional burnout can negatively impact the care provided to the very people we intend to help -- the patient!!

Nurses
There is great privilege in being able to support someone through the best and worst of what life has to offer. There are however also great risks for the nurses own health in doing so, day in and day out. In essence; nursing is absolutely one of the most stress filled occupations around and professional burnout can have dire consequences to nurses.

Nursing Leaders

Be mindful that burnout will eventually cause withdrawal from the activity associated with the burnout. In case burnout amongst nurses hasn't caught your attention yet consider that in 2002 a US National Institutes of Health (2) study reported that there was a 23% increase in burnout for each additional patient to nurse ratio and of those nurses who experience burnout a whooping 43% said they were planning to leave their job within the next year. Such statistics are a call for action if any organisation intends to attract and keep its nursing workforce. Professional burnout is real and it has serious consequences for nurses and patients as well as nursing and health care leaders. We will explore strategies and solutions in Part 2 Burnout Solutions.
(1) Maslach, C. (1982). Burnout: The cost of caring. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. (2)National Institutes of Health. (2002). More surgical patients die when nurses caseloads increase.